THE ALCHEMY OF LOVE, Rumi

THE ALCHEMY OF LOVE

You come to us
from another world

From beyond the stars
and void of space.

Transcendent, Pure,
Of unimaginable beauty,
Bringing with you
the essence of love

You transform all
who are touched by you.
Mundane concerns,
troubles, and sorrows
dissolve in your presence,

Bringing joy
to ruler and ruled
To peasant and king

You bewilder us
with your grace.

All evils
transform into
goodness.

You are the master alchemist.

You light the fire of love
in earth and sky
in heart and soul
of every being.

Through your love
existence and nonexistence merge.
All opposites unite.
All that is profane
becomes sacred again.

The Awakening, Rumi

THE AWAKENING

In the early dawn of happiness
you gave me three kisses
so that I would wake up
to this moment of love

I tried to remember in my heart
what I’d dreamt about
during the night
before I became aware 

of this moving
of life

I found my dreams
but the moon took me away

It lifted me up to the firmament
and suspended me there
I saw how my heart had fallen
on your path

singing a song

Between my love and my heart
things were happening which
slowly slowly 

made me recall everything

You amuse me with your touch
although I can’t see your hands.
You have kissed me with tenderness

although I haven’t seen your lips

You are hidden from me.

But it is you who keeps me alive

Perhaps the time will come

when you will tire of kisses
I shall be happy
even for insults from you

I only ask that you
keep some attention on me.

Rumi and the Play of Poetry

This Is How I Would Die ,Rumi , Coleman Barks

Opening the Heart Through Ecstatic Poetry,Coleman Barks at TEDxUGA

me, i found this interesting enough to post here...

John Tavener ,Wake Up . . . And Die (Performed by Yo-Yo Ma)

Keith Jarrett - 2006 ,True Blues (piano solo live)

Anat Cohen ,And The World Weeps, Live at Sixth and I Synagogue 06.07.12

Tal y Tali y Anat ,Ima (by Anat Cohen)

nobody can be you

nobody can be you.
nobody can be me.
there is a presence
of the unexplainable.

you in your high deserts
within the scent of herbs
and memories and close
to the barbarians, catholic

glorification of suffering,
all alone and widening
with the circling of buzzards
in immensely stretching skies

working their light
together with the texture
of stones and child's words
into your inside

from where you will
harvest consciousness
flowing through your days
with a clearing of eyes.

me in my home, also
littered with stones and
spring shooting out of
a bitter barren soil

with a blossoming to
take my breath away
and with the dying
of a young friend

and i have no place
for memories
as i feel the pain
of growth and perishing

all now, here
between my days
and long nights
when i keep vigil.

and when we cannot
be together
nor read our words:
we cannot grow we,

but you will grow you
and i will grow me.
nobody can be you.
nobody can be me.

RUMI:
“You think because you understand 'one' you must also understand 'two', 
because one and one make two. 
But you must also understand 'and'.”

Rumi, Music Master

You that love lovers,

this is your home. Welcome!

In the midst of making form, love

made this form that melts form,

with love for the door,

soul the vestibule.

Watch the dust grains moving

in the light near the window.

Their dance is our dance.

We rarely hear the inward music,

but we’re all dancing to it nevertheless,

directed by the one who teaches us,

the pure joy of the sun,

our music master.

Quietness, Rumi

Inside this new love, die.

Your way begins on the other side.

Become the sky.

Take an axe to the prison wall.

Escape.

Walk out like someone suddenly born into color.

Do it now.

You’re covered with thick cloud.

Slide out the side. Die,

and be quiet. Quietness is the surest sign

that you’ve died.

Your old life was a frantic running

from silence.

The speechless full moon

comes out now.

Rumi, The Vigil

THE VIGIL

Don't go to sleep one night.
What you most want will come to you then.
Warmed by a sun inside, you'll see wonders.
Tonight, don't put your head down.

Be tough, and strength will come.
That which adoration adores
appears at night. Those asleep
may miss it. One night Moses stayed awake
and asked, and saw a light in a tree.

Then he walked at night for ten years,
until finally he saw the whole tree
illuminated. Muhammad rode his horse
through the night sky. The day is for work.
The night for love. Don't let someone
bewitch you. Some people sleep at night.

But not lovers. They sit in the dark
and talk to God, who told David,
"Those who sleep all night every night
and claim to be connected to us, they lie."

Lovers can't sleep when they feel the privacy
of the beloved all around them. Someone
who's thirsty may sleep for a little while,
but he or she will dream of water, a full jar
beside a creek, or the spiritual water you get
from another person. All night, listen
to the conversation. Stay up.
This moment is all there is.

Death will take it away soon enough.
You'll be gone, and this earth will be left 
without a sweetheart, nothing but weeds
growing inside thorns.

I'm through. Read the rest of this poem
in the dark tonight.
Do I have a head? And feet?

Shams, so loved by Tabrizians, I close my lips.
I wait for you to come and open them.

-- Version by Coleman Barks
"The Essential Rumi"
HarperSanfrancisco, 1995.

Rumi, an eye is meant to.., quote

“An eye is meant to see things.

The soul is here for its own joy.

A head has one use: For loving a true love.

Feet: To chase after.

Love is for vanishing into the sky. 

The mind, for learning what men have done and tried to do.

Mysteries are not to be solved: 

The eye goes blind

when it only wants to see why.

A lover is always accused of something.

But when he finds his love, 

whatever was lost in the looking 

comes back completely changed.” 

(from: Night and Sleep, Rumi)