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                      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



Copyright (c) Michelle Smith   All Rights Reserved  2017