Saturday, March 11, 2006

Acts of Helplessness

Here are the miracle-signs you want:
that you cry through the night and get up at dawn, asking,
that in the absence of what you ask for your day gets dark, your neck thin as a spindle,
that what you give away is all you own,
that you sacrifice belongings, sleep, health, your head,
that you often sit down in a fire like aloes wood, and often go outto meet a blade like a battered helmet. When acts of helplessness become habitual, those are the signs.

But you run back and forth listening for unusual events, peering into the faces of travelers.
“Why are you looking at me like a madman?”I have lost a friend. Please forgive me.
Searching like that does not fail. There will come a rider who holds you close. You faint and gibber. The uninitiated say, “He’s faking.” How could they know?
Water washes over a beached fish, the water of those signs I just mentioned.

Excuse my wandering. How can one be orderly with this? It’s like counting leaves in a garden, along with the song-notes of partridges, and crows.

Sometimes organization and computation become absurd. Rumi

1 Comments:

At March 11, 2006, Blogger Michael said...

First, let me say that I have great respect for the poetry of Rumi, and I'd like to read more of it. I recently purchased a collection of his writings, so that will take care of itself in time.
Second, Cromanyak, please accept my apologies for leaving a poem (a song lyric, actually) here as a comment. I can't create new posts, only comment on existing ones.
So, here goes:

It’s only water
In a stranger’s tear
Looks are deceptive
But distinctions are clear
A foreign body
And a foreign mind
Never welcome
In the land of the blind
You may look like we do
Talk like we do
But you know how it is

You’re not one of us
Not one of us
No you’re not one of us
Not one of us
Not one of us
No you’re not one of us

There’s safety in numbers
When you learn to divide
How can we be in
If there is no outside
All shades of opinion
Feed an open mind
But your values are twisted
Let us help you unwind
You may look like we do
Talk like we do
-but you know how it is

You’re not one of us
Not one of us
No you’re not one of us
You’re not one of us
Not one of us
No you’re not one of us

Not one of us
You’re not one of us
Not one of us
You’re not one of us
Not one of us
You’re not one of us

--Peter Gabriel, "Not One of Us"

 

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