Monday Sacred Poetry Share

While this blog has been mostly devoted to sharing Sufi Poetry and that will continue to be a strong focus, the main theme is shifting to what I will categorize as Sacred Poetry. Life is like a vibrantly colored fabric that presents in a cascading array of experiences. We each come to naming some aspects of Life as more/less profane or more/less sacred than this or that. With that in mind, poetry that has come to touch my Heart and Soul in a particular way is what I call Sacred and what I will be sharing here, now, and in the future. I'll also be sharing some of my own poetry every once in a while. If you are resonating with this blog or the poetry posted on it, I encourage you to comment and share poetry that also touches your Heart.

Monday Sacred Poetry Share

Cracked - Nell Aurelia (2014)

I'm cracked. Completely.

I fell into the furnace long enough

To decide to find my own fire and light,

And when I went all to pieces

Some surrendered to the heat

And those that were left were me

But purer: there is something of a diamond

Rushing through my core,

A full madness of restructuring.

There is no ruin here.

Unless that is your fearful name for transformation,

Which I can understand,

But when you fall flying into your own,

You'll understand:

Falling apart is full of its own reward,

However much it feels like dying, like failure

Full of the unbearable sensitivity

Of committing to this human experience.

Go deep into this fire.

There's a point where all explodes and converges,

And you find you are yourself,

Only stronger, clearer, finer.

The messiest refinement of all: Choosing to live well.

Well? Fully.

Alive to pain, to suffering, to inequality,

To joy, to birth, to creation, to love- To all,

Because when you get right down in it

Acknowledging pain only opens you more to joy.

The brilliant imperfections of love, of loving,

Can only make the world shine brighter;

It's fear that will give you half a life and convince you

You never wanted the other half anyway.

Selected Poems by Lalla, translated by Coleman Barks

***

That one is blessed and at peace

who doesn't hope, to whom

desire makes no more loans.

Nothing coming, nothing owed.

***

In this state there is no Shiva,

nor any holy union

Only a somewhat something moving

dreamlike on a fading road.

***

Be Love