Day 7 of my 30 days of poetry! (And this one took me less than 30 minutes to write...huzzah!)
I am a little obsessed with Hafiz. I know, that's weird, and nobody really says that, but seriously. He's super cool, right? He's this old Persian dude with a sense of humor, really.
At any rate, this is one of his poems (from I Heard God Laughing: Poems of Hope and Joy, translated by Daniel Ladinsky):
"We should talk about this problem
There is a Beautiful
Creature
living in a hole you
have dug.
So at night
I set fruit and grains
and little pots of wine
and milk
beside your soft
earthen mounds,
And I often sing.
But still, my dear,
you do not come out.
I have fallen in love
with Someone
who lives inside you.
We should talk about
this problem --
otherwise,
I will never leave you
alone."
So I responded. I mean, how could I not? Hafiz wanted to have a conversation...so here we go:
One side of an ongoing conversation with Hafiz
Okay Hafiz, I say,
let us talk about this
problem:
You act like it is all
so easy.
Like I only need to
look up,
to laugh.
to breathe,
to know I am beloved,
you chide me
for questioning and
doubting the greatness of your Friend,
your Spirit,
Love, and life
you old Persian,
your poetry reads like
fact,
goes down like
prescription,
aches in my veins like
drug, like addiction, you
patch up all the loveless
places in my soul.
Hafiz, I say:
How it is that I feel this love and still question my worthy?
Hafiz, I say:
you leave me fruit and
grains,
but perhaps chocolate is a better lure,
you should sing
better songs, or sometimes
lie down and peer under furniture
coax my timid Creature
out gently
with no great promises
of dancing
she needs quiet gentleness
a human love
for great love scares
her.
Hafiz,
I have fallen in love
with your promise of Love
and hopeful joy--
show me how to live this.
Do not just keep pestering me
to open to love:
I am only the bug that knocks against the screen
trying to reach the light.
I pause for breath and
hear
Hafiz.
I can't be sure,
but I think he's
laughing.
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