A Great Wagon- A poem by Rumi


Imagine we are in an RA session, (don’t know what that is? Okay, it’s Romantics Anonymous and I am the founder!). We are in an RA session and I am raising my hands up, I say “my name is Hajel and I am a hopeless romantic!” You all say “Hi Hajel” and the class coordinator says “what’s your poison of choice”… I say “it’s words Ma’am, a kind word… the right words, just talking… it gets me every time!” LOL!

All of this is triggered by this wonderful poem by Rumi, I always thought of Rumi as a teacher & philosopher… I haven’t studied him or his work very much, so finding this poem was a pleasant surprise. It’s made the romantic in me all mushy on the inside… I thought I’d share it with you! All the parts in bold are just for emphasis- they are really special!

Xoxo!

“A Great Wagon”- Rumi

When I see your face, the stones start spinning!

You appear; all studying wanders.

I lose my place.

Water turns pearly.

Fire dies down and doesn’t destroy.

In your presence I don’t want what I thought I wanted, those three little hanging lamps.

Inside your face the ancient manuscripts

Seem like rusty mirrors.

You breathe; new shapes appear,

and the music of a desire as widespread

as Spring begins to move

like a great wagon.

Drive slowly.

Some of us walking alongside

are lame!

~

Today, like every other day, we wake up empty

and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study

and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.

Let the beauty we love be what we do.

There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

~

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,

there is a field. I’ll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,

the world is too full to talk about.

Ideas, language, even the phrase each other

doesn’t make any sense.

~

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.

Don’t go back to sleep.

You must ask for what you really want.

Don’t go back to sleep.

People are going back and forth across the doorsill

where the two worlds touch.

The door is round and open.

Don’t go back to sleep.

I would love to kiss you.

The price of kissing is your life.

Now my loving is running toward my life shouting,

What a bargain, let’s buy it.

~

Daylight, full of small dancing particles

and the one great turning, our souls

are dancing with you, without feet, they dance.

Can you see them when I whisper in your ear?

~

They try to say what you are, spiritual or sexual?

They wonder about Solomon and all his wives.

In the body of the world, they say, there is a soul

and you are that.

~

But we have ways within each other

that will never be said by anyone.

Come to the orchard in Spring.

There is light and wine, and sweethearts

in the pomegranate flowers.

If you do not come, these do not matter.

If you do come, these do not matter.

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