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Pied Beauty

Gill Washington Gerard Manley Hopkins, Poems, Spirituality , , , 0 Comment

Pied Beauty

By Gerard Manley Hopkins

AS kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves—goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying What I do is me: for that I came.

I say more: the just man justices;
Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is—
Christ—for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces.

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God’s Grandeur

Gill Washington Gerard Manley Hopkins, Poems, Spirituality , , 0 Comment

God’s Grandeur

By Gerard Manley Hopkins

THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

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I Will Hire You as a Minstrel

Gill Washington Hafez, Poems, Spirituality , , , 0 Comment

I Will Hire You as a Minstrel

by Hafez

Take one of my tears,
Throw it into the ocean

And watch the salt in the wounds
Of this earth and men begin to disappear.

Take one of my tears
And cradle it in your palm.
Mount a great white camel
And carry my love into every desert,
Paying homage to every Prophet
Who has ever walked in our world.

O take one of my tears
And stop weeping only for sadness,

For there is so much More to this life
Than you now understand.

Take one of my tears
And become like the Happy One,
O like the Happy One —
Who now lives Forever
Within me.

When a drop from my Emerald Sea
Touches your soul’s mouth,
It will dissolve everything but your Joy
And an Eternal Wonder.

Then,
The Beloved will gladly hire you
As His minstrel

To go traveling about this world,
Letting everyone upon this earth

Hear
The Beautiful Names of God
Resound in a thousand chords!

Hafiz himself is singing tonight
In Resplendent Glory,

For the cup in my heart
Has revealed the Beloved’s Face,
And I have His oath in writing

That He will never again depart.

O Hafiz, take one of your tears,
For you are weeping like a golden candle-

Throw one tear into the Ocean of your own verse

And let the wounds
Of every lover of God who kneels in prayer
And comes close to your words
Begin, right now,
To disappear.

From: I Heard God Laughing – Renderings of Hafiz – Daniel Ladinsky
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Now is the Time

Gill Washington Hafez, Poems , , , 0 Comment

Now is the Time

Hafez

Now is the time to know
That all that you do is sacred.

Now, why not consider
A lasting truce with yourself and God.

Now is the time to understand
That all your ideas of right and wrong
Were just a child’s training wheels
To be laid aside
When you finally live
With veracity
And love.

Hafiz is a divine envoy
Whom the Beloved
Has written a holy message upon.

My dear, please tell me,
Why do you still
Throw sticks at your heart
And God?

What is it in that sweet voice inside
That incites you to fear?

Now is the time for the world to know
That every thought and action is sacred.

This is the time for you to compute the impossibility
That there is anything
But Grace.

Now is the season to know
That everything you do
Is sacred.

The Gift – Poems by Hafiz the Great Sufi Master
translations by Daniel Ladinsky

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Don’t Despair…

Gill Washington Hafez, Poems, Spirituality , , , 0 Comment

Don’t Despair…

by Hafez

Joseph to his father in Canaan shall return, don’t despair walk on;
and Jacob’s hut will brighten with flowers, don’t despair walk on.

Aching hearts heal in time, vanished hopes reappear,
the disparate mind will be pacified, don’t despair walk on.

As the spring of life grows the newly green meadow,
roses will crown the sweet nightingale’s song, don’t despair walk on

If the world does not turn to your whims these few days,
cosmic cycles are preparing to change, don’t despair walk on.

If desperation whispers you’ll never know God,
it’s the talk of hidden games in the veil, don’t despair walk on.

O heart, when the vast flood slashes life to its roots,
Captain Noah waits to steer you ashore, don’t despair walk on.

If you trek as a pilgrim through sands to Kaabeh
with thorns lodged deep in your soul shouting why, don’t despair walk on

Though oases hide dangers and your destiny’s far,
there’s no pathway that goes on forever, don’t despair walk on.

My trials and enemies face me on their own,
but mystery always backs up my stand, don’t despair walk on.

Hafez, weakened by poverty, alone in the dark,
this night is your pathway into the light, don’t despair walk on.

From: The Spiritual Wisdom of Hafez
Haleh Pourafzal and Roger Montgomery

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Teaching

Gill Washington Kahlil Gibran, Poems, The Prophet , , , 0 Comment

Kahlil Gibran

From The Prophet

THEN said a teacher, Speak to us of Teaching.

And he said:

No man can reveal to you aught but that which
already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.

The teacher who walks in the shadow of the
temple, among his followers, gives not of his
wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness.

If he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter
the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to
the threshold of your own mind.

The astronomer may speak to you of his understanding
of space, but he cannot give you his understanding.

The musician may sing to you of the rhythm which
is in all space, but he cannot give you the ear which
arrests the rhythm nor the voice that echoes it.

And he who is versed in the science of numbers
can tell of the regions of weight and measure, but
he cannot conduct you thither.

For the vision of one man lends not its wings to
another man.

And even as each one of you stands alone in
God’s knowledge, so must each one of you be alone
in his knowledge of God and his understanding of the earth.

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A Tear And A Smile

Gill Washington Kahlil Gibran, Poems , , , , , 0 Comment

 

Kahlil Gibran

I would not exchange the sorrows of my heart
for the joys of the multitude.
And I would not have the tears that sadness makes
to flow from my every part turn into laughter.

I would that my life remain a tear and a smile.

A tear to purify my heart and give me understanding
of life’s secrets and hidden things.
A smile to draw me nigh to the sons of my kind and
to be a symbol of my glorification of the gods.

A tear to unite me with those of broken heart;
a smile to be a sign of my joy in existence.

I would rather that I died in yearning and longing than
that I live weary and despairing.

I want the hunger for love and beauty to be in the
depths of my spirit,for I have seen those who are
satisfied the most wretched of people.
I have heard the sigh of those in yearning and longing,
and it is sweeter than the sweetest melody.

With evening’s coming the flower folds her petals
and sleeps, embracing her longing.
At morning’s approach she opens her lips to meet
the sun’s kiss.

The life of a flower is longing and fulfilment.
A tear and a smile.

The waters of the sea become vapor and rise and come
together and area cloud.

And the cloud floats above the hills and valleys
until it meets the gentle breeze, then falls weeping
to the fields and joins with brooks and rivers to return
to the sea, its home.

The life of clouds is a parting and a meeting.
A tear and a smile.

And so does the spirit become separated from
the greater spirit to move in the world of matter
and pass as a cloud over the mountain of sorrow
and the plains of joy to meet the breeze of death
and return whence it came.

To the ocean of Love and Beauty—-to God.

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