Only breath
Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu,
Buddhist, sufi, or zen. Not any religion.
or cultural system. I am not from the East
or the West, not out of the ocean or up
from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not
composed of elements at all. I do not exist,
am not an entity in this world or the next,
did not descend from Adam and Eve or any
origin story. My place is placeless, a trace
of the traceless. Neither body or soul.
I belong to the beloved, have seen the two
worlds as one and that one call to and know,
first, last, outer, inner, only that
breath breathing human being.
The Essential Rumi, Translations by Coleman Barks with John Moyne, Copyright 1995 by Coleman Barks, HarperSanFrancisco
One more Rumi poem:
There is a way between voice and presence
where information flows
In disciplined silence it opens.
With wandering talk it closes.
thank you, mig, for exposing me to that. for, now, i’ll have to go and purchase something from the bookstore.
and i’ll be poor because of it and not eat, you jerk.
oh, wait, no. i mean, thank you :). i really liked it. quite beautiful.
that first one is so right on.
especially the part “Neithr body or soul.”
er