Poetry... and the Stuff of Life
These are most certainly times in which our souls are challenged: from the recent election of Mr. Trump as President to the resistance at Standing Rock... from the prospect of billionaires, millionaires, and retired military in Mr. Trump's Cabinet to the horrendous fact of still starving children... The mystic-activist must attentively cultivate a life of poetry -- whether or not one writes poetry herself... "A life of poetry" has many essential elements, such as leisure, contemplative practice, art and music, hot tea, long walks, good conversation, and sexual pleasure from among many sacred "offerings"...
The poem, "The Whirling Dervish", was written during the summer when goldfinches and hummingbirds tend to ambush the mind... A spiritual practice that flows from the teachings and poetry of Rumi and his Master, Shams of Tabriz, is that of a "movement meditation"... as both atoms and "mutiverse" spin in ordered confusion, so the Sufi whirls attuned with this same cosmic wonder... Music fills the empty spaces... Chants lift and expand the breath... Surrender is the key that unlocks the secret doors of perception...
The Whirling Dervish
The dervish whirls sourced with wind
And sister to the rubythroated hummingbird
Alone as an electron
Searching infinite space before finding
A brother whirling too worlds apart
On a blue planet here in the Milky Way
On a hardwood floor with arguments outside
On differences
But here words surrender to One and
The white robe flowers for the hummingbird
These are most certainly times in which our souls are challenged: from the recent election of Mr. Trump as President to the resistance at Standing Rock... from the prospect of billionaires, millionaires, and retired military in Mr. Trump's Cabinet to the horrendous fact of still starving children... The mystic-activist must attentively cultivate a life of poetry -- whether or not one writes poetry herself... "A life of poetry" has many essential elements, such as leisure, contemplative practice, art and music, hot tea, long walks, good conversation, and sexual pleasure from among many sacred "offerings"...
The poem, "The Whirling Dervish", was written during the summer when goldfinches and hummingbirds tend to ambush the mind... A spiritual practice that flows from the teachings and poetry of Rumi and his Master, Shams of Tabriz, is that of a "movement meditation"... as both atoms and "mutiverse" spin in ordered confusion, so the Sufi whirls attuned with this same cosmic wonder... Music fills the empty spaces... Chants lift and expand the breath... Surrender is the key that unlocks the secret doors of perception...
The Whirling Dervish
The dervish whirls sourced with wind
And sister to the rubythroated hummingbird
Alone as an electron
Searching infinite space before finding
A brother whirling too worlds apart
On a blue planet here in the Milky Way
On a hardwood floor with arguments outside
On differences
But here words surrender to One and
The white robe flowers for the hummingbird
