49) A crystal rim
The Earth
Lifts its glass to the sun
And light -- light
Is poured.
A bird
Comes and sits on a crystal rim
And from my forest cave I
Hear singing.
So I run to the edge of existence
And join my soul in love.
I lift my heart to God
And grace is poured.
An emerald bird rises from inside me
And now sits
Upon the Beloved's
Glass.
I have left that dark cave forever.
My body has blended with His.
I lay my wing
As a bridge to you
So that you can join us
Singing.
64) When i want to kiss God
When
No one is looking
I swallow deserts and clouds
And chew on mountains knowing
They are sweet
Bones!
When no one is looking and I want
To kiss
God
I just lift my own hand
To
My
Mouth.
78) Everywhere
Running
Through the streets
Screaming,
Throwing rocks through windows,
Using my own head to ring
Great bells,
Pulling out my hair,
Tearing off my clothes,
Tying everything I own
To a stick,
And setting in on
Fire.
What else can Hafiz do tonight
To celebrate the madness,
The joy,
Of seeing God
Everywhere!
110) Let thought become your beautiful lover
Let thought become the beautiful Woman.
Cultivate your mind and heart to that depth
That it can give you everything
A warm body can.
Why just keep making love with God's child-- Form
When the Friend Himself is standing
Before us
So open-armed?
My dear,
Let prayer become your beautiful Lover
And become free,
Become free of this whole world
Like Hafiz.
121) It felt love
How
Did the rose
Ever open its heart
And give to this world
All its
Beauty?
It felt the encouragement of light
Against its
Being,
Otherwise,
We all remain
Too
Frightened.
136) Dividing God
The moon starts singing
When everyone is asleep
And the planets throw a bright robe
Around their shoulders and whirl up
Close to her side.
Once I asked the moon,
“Why do you and your sweet friends
Not perform so romantically like that
To a larger crowd?”
And the whole sky chorus resounded,
“The admission price to hear
The lofty minstrels
Speak of love
Is affordable only to those
Who have not exhausted themselves
Dividing God all day
And thus need rest.
The thrilled Tavern fiddlers
Who are perched on the roof
Do not want their notes to intrude
Upon the ears
Where an accountant lives
With a sharp pencil
Keeping score of words
Another
In their great sorrow or sad anger
May have once said
To you.”
Hafiz knows:
The sun will stand as your best man
And whistle
When you have found the courage
To marry forgiveness,
When you have found the courage
To marry
Love.
138) I saw two birds
Both of our mouths
Can fit upon this flute I carry.
My music will sound
So much sweeter that way.
With your breath and my breath
Poking each other in the ribs
And kissing.
I saw two birds on a limb this morning
Laughing with the sun.
They reminded me of how
We will one day exist.
My dear,
Keep thinking about God,
Keep thinking about the Beloved
And soon our nest will be the
Whole firmament.
Forget about all your desires for truth,
We have gone far beyond that,
For now it is just –
Pure need.
Both our hearts are meant to sing.
Both our souls are destined to touch
And kiss.
Upon this holy flute
God carries.
148) That lamp that needs no oil
I have made the journey into Nothing.
I have lit that lamp that
Needs no oil.
I have cried great streams
Of emerald crystals
On my scarred knees, begging love
To never again let me hear from
Any world
The sound of my own name,
Even from the voice of divine thought
Or see that pen you gave me, God,
In the sun’s or sky’s skillful hand
Writing
Anything other than the word —
ONE.
I have made the journey into Nothing
I have become the flame that needs
No fuel.
Beloved,
Now what need is there to ever
Call for Hafiz?
For if you did,
I would just step out
of YOU.
159) Faithful lover
The moon came to me last night
With a sweet question.
She said,
"The sun has been my faithful lover
For millions of years.
Whenever I offer my body to him
Brilliant light pours from his heart.
Thousands then notice my happiness
And delight in pointing
Toward my beauty.
Hafiz,
Is it true that our destiny
Is to turn into Light
Itself?"
And I replied,
Dear moon,
Now that your love is maturing,
We need to sit together
Close like this more often
So I might instruct you
How to become
Who you
Are!
170) It is unanimous
It is unanimous where I come from.
Everyone agrees on one thing:
It’s no fun
When God is not near.
All are hunters.
The wise man learns the
Friend’s weaknesses and sets a clever trap.
Listen,
the Beloved has agreed to play a game
called
Love.
Our sun sat in the sky
way before this earth was born
waiting to caress a billion faces.
The wise man learns what draws God near.
It is the beauty of compassion in your heart.
183) A cushion for your head
Just sit there right now
Don’t do a thing
Just rest.
For your separation from God,
From love,
Is the hardest work
In this
World.
Let me bring you trays of food
And something
That you like to
Drink.
You can use my soft words
As a cushion
For your
Head.
186) The ambience of love
We All
Sit in His orchestra,
Some play their
Fiddles,
Some wield their
Clubs,
Tonight is worthy of music.
Let's get loose
With
Compassion,
Let's drown in the delicious
Ambience of Love.
201) If you don't stop that
I used to live in
A cramped house with confusion
And pain.
But then I met the Friend
And started getting drunk
And singing all
Night.
Confusion and pain
Started acting nasty,
Making threats,
With talk like this,
"If you don't stop 'that'—
All that fun—
We're
Leaving.”
216) She responded
The birds' favorite songs you do not hear,
for their most flamboyant music takes place
when their wings are stretched above the trees
and they are smoking the opium of
pure freedom. It is healthy for the prisoner
to have faith
that one day he will again move about
whenever he wants;
feel the wondrous grit of life - less structured -
find all debts stamped, canceled, paid.
I once asked a bird, "How is it that you fly
in this gravity of darkness?"
She responded, "Love lifts me."
222) Where is the door to the tavern?
Where is the door to God?
In the sound of a barking dog
In the ring of a hammer
In a drop of rain
In the face of
Everyone
I see
225) In need of the breath
My heart
Is an unset jewel
Upon the tender night
Yearning for its dear old friend
The Moon.
When the Nameless One debuts again
Ten thousand facets of my being unfurl wings
And reveal such a radiance inside
I enter a realm divine -
I too begin so sweetly cast light,
Like a lamp,
Through the streets of this
World.
My heart is an unset jewel
Upon existence
Waiting for the Friend's touch
Tonight
My heart is an unset ruby
Offered bowed and weeping to the Sky.
I am dying in these cold hours
For the resplendent glance of God.
I am dying
Because of a divine remembrance
Of who - I really am.
228) The Thousand-Stringed Instrument
The heart is
The thousand-stringed instrument.
Our sadness and fear come from being
Out of tune with love.
All day long God coaxes my lips
To speak,
So that your tears will not stain
His green dress.
It is not that the Friend is vain,
It is just your life we care about.
Sometimes the Beloved
Takes my pen in hand,
For Hafiz is just a simple man.
The other day the Old One
Wrote on the Tavern wall:
“The heart is
The thousand-stringed instrument
That can only be tuned with
Love.”
259) WOW
Where does the real poetry
Come from?
From the amorous sighs
In this moist dark when making love
With form or Spirit.
Where does poetry live?
In the eye that says, "Wow wee,"
In the overpowering felt splendor
Every sane mind knows
When it realizes - our life dance
Is only for a few magic
Seconds,
From the heart saying,
Shouting,
"I am so damn
Alive.”
270) The God who only knows four words
Every
Child
Has known God,
Not the God of names,
Not the God of don’ts,
Not the God who ever does Anything weird,
But the God who only knows four words And keeps repeating them, saying:
“Come dance with Me.”
Come Dance.
277) My eyes so soft
Don't
Surrender
Your loneliness so quickly.
Let it cut more
Deep.
Let it ferment and season you
As few human
Or even divine ingredients can.
Something missing in my heart tonight
Has made my eyes so soft,
My voice so
Tender,
My need of God
Absolutely Clear.
295) For three days
Not many teachers in this world
Can give you as much enlightenment
In one year
As sitting all alone, for three days,
In your closet
Would
Do.
This means not leaving.
Better get a friend to help with
A few sandwiches
And
The chamber
Pot.
And no reading in there or writing poems,
That would be cheating;
Aim high—for a 360 degree
Detox.
This sitting alone, though, is
Not recommended
If you are normally
Sedated
Or have ever been under doctor's
Surveillance because of your
Brain.
Dear one,
Don't let Hafiz fool you—
A ruby is buried
Here.
FOREVER DANCE
I am happy even before I have a reason.
I am full of Light even before the sky
Can greet the sun or the moon.
Dear companions,
We have been in love with God
For so very, very long.
What can Hafiz do but
Forever
Dance!
MY BRILLIANT IMAGE
One day the sun admitted,
I am just a shadow.
I wish I could show you
The Infinite Incandescence (Tej)
That cast my brilliant image!
I wish I could show you,
When you are lonely or in darkness,
The Astonishing Light
Of your own Being!
Hafiz Laughter
What is Laughter? What is Laughter?
It is God waking up! O it is God waking up!
It is the sun poking it sweet head out
From behind a cloud
You have been carrying too long.
Veiling your eyes and heart.
It is Light breaking ground for a great Structure
That is your Real body— called truth.
It is happiness applauding itself and then taking flight
To embrace everyone and everything in this world.
Laughter is the polestar
Held in the sky by our Beloved
Who eternally says,
“Yes, dear ones, come this way,
Come this way toward Me and Love!
Come with your tender mouths moving
And your beautiful tongues conducting songs
And with your movements– your magic movements
of hands and feet and glands and cells– Dancing!
Know that to God’s Eye,
All movement is a Wondrous Language,
And Music–such exquisite, wild Music!”
O what is laughter Hafiz?
What is this precious love and laughter
Budding in our hearts?
It is the glorious sound
Of a soul waking up!
315) Every city is a dulcimer
There is the rising up from light's embrace,
you can see in a summer field
or in a child dancing.
Every city is a dulcimer that plays its chorus
against our ears.
If I don't ever complete a sentence
while we are together, accept my apologies
and try to understand this sweet thought:
Birds intially had no desire to fly,
so God sat close to them playing music.
When He left, they missed him so much
their great longing sprouted wings
and they took to the sky.
Listen, nothing evolves us like love.
322) With that moon language
Admit something:
Everyone you see, you say to them, “Love me.”
Of course you do not do this out loud, otherwise
Someone would call the cops.
Still, though, think about this, this great pull in us to connect.
Why not become the one who lives with a
Full moon in each eye that is always saying,
With that sweet moon language, what every other eye in
This world is dying to hear?
The human heart holds “our behavior itself is the awakening: there is no other Buddha than the Heart. All
phenomena are nothing but the Heart.”
Tao Son
This is what I see.
The world is green.
And everywhere there is a garden.
I see your face, luminous like a rose.
I see you happy, you are laughing.
Everywhere there is a gem, inflamed from the Beloved’s mine.
Everywhere there is a soul. connected to another soul.
Rumi
What Does Light Talk About?
by St. Thomas Aquinas
When you recognize her beauty,
the eye applauds, the heart stands in an ovation,
and the tongue when she is near
is on its best behavior,
it speaks more like light.
What does light talk about?
I asked a plant that once,
It said, "I am not sure,
but it makes me
grow.”
Remember you are Water: Cry, Cleanse, Flow, Let Go.
Remember You are Fire: Burn, Tame, Adapt, Ignite.
Remember You are Air: Observe, Breath, Focus, Decide.
Remember You are Earth: Ground, Build, Produce, Give.
Remember You are Spirit: Connect, Listen, Know, Be Still
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
