abandoned

Any Moment Now

Gill Washington Poems, Spirituality, Steve Toth , , , 0 Comment

Steve Toth

The more we are what we are
the lonelier it gets
You don’t need to get away
for some time alone
We’re always alone
So why kid ourselves
& act as if we don’t know
We know very well but
don’t like to think about it
because it makes us
feel suddenly abandoned
Just like we know
we’re about to breathe our last
any moment now

Much better to simply accept it
because we’re already
getting light headed
& because there’s suddenly
nowhere to lean
nowhere to stand
The earth seems tiny like a baseball
being shot out of your reality
or a mortal shell
or some kind of nerve gas
What kind of wild story
will our minds make up this time
to explain what
happened to our senses?

When you’re solitary
distances take more out of you
Every cup life hands you
seems ready to shatter
Everybody lives with
the knowledge in their own way
Some get fired up & leave the lights on
Others explode into countless fragments
none of which seem to belong anywhere
& still manage to show only courage
in the face of some
of the strangest things yet encountered
without even the senses
to fully grasp them

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My Dear Friend

Gill Washington Beloved, Love, Poems, Rumi, Spirituality, Sufism , , , , 0 Comment

By Rumi

My dear friend
never lose hope
when the Beloved
sends you away.

If you’re abandoned
if you’re left hopeless
tomorrow for sure
you’ll be called again.

If the door is shut
right in your face
keep waiting with patience
don’t leave right away.

Seeing your patience
your love will soon
summon you with grace
raise you like a champion.

And if all the roads
end up in dead ends
you’ll be shown the secret paths
no one will comprehend.

The beloved I know
will give with no qualms
to a puny ant
the kingdom of Solomon.

My heart has journeyed
many times around the world
but has never found
and will never find
such a Beloved again.

ah I better keep silence
I know this endless love
will surely arrive
for you and you and you.

Translated by Nader Khalili

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Crucifix

Gill Washington Anna Akhmatova, Poems , , 0 Comment

Do not cry for me, Mother, seeing me in the grave.

I

This greatest hour was hallowed and thandered
By angel’s choirs; fire melted sky.
He asked his Father:”Why am I abandoned…?”
And told his Mother: “Mother, do not cry…”

II

Magdalena struggled, cried and moaned.
Peter sank into the stone trance…
Only there, where Mother stood alone,
None has dared cast a single glance.

~Anna Akhmatova
Translated by Tanya Karshtedt