They are really living alchemy stones the great poets. And to be most touched by them— and get some undeniable physics clicking in, working on your behalf, read their verse slowly and out loud. Both Rumi and Hafiz tell of that secret in their verse. Find something you like of theirs— read it like a prayer, I would say: even kiss a poem you especially like. Wed it in some ways. A greater friend—with a real living heart in it—may be hard to find. 

The wing needs to become more gold to taste the Sky.*

— Hafiz

*to taste the Sky: to know God.

Or to know more yourself as—Buddha, as a Zen Master might say is the destiny of every creature, and even every form: to become a Buddha.

Once after giving a reading and a talk at a yoga center that had some beautiful Buddha statues in their garden, someone asked me:

"What is the greatest value of Rumi & Hafiz?"

I responded:

“They can help you find Buddha in your pocket!"

There is a sweet story I was told by a Persian language teacher in India, where I lived for some 6 years over a 20 year stretch of going to India for some weeks and months every year, that began in 1978. 

I never really learned Persian at all; and have mostly worked from Victorian translations of Hafiz and Rumi that are in the public domain— as well as for that wonderful gang that appears in my Penguin anthology: Love Poems from God.

But that story I want to share, goes:

Once my Persian language teacher was in a small private audience with Meher Baba, and they were discussing Hafiz, who was Meher Baba's favorite poet. And Meher Baba said to this Persian teacher:

“Do you know the wonderful value of memorizing lines of poetry by the great masters, like Hafiz and Rumi and Kabir?”

And my Persian teacher offered some answers, but apparently they fell short, cause then Meher Baba said:

"Just as an expert chef could so easily improve the flavor in a pot of soup being cooked by adding in special spices, talent, and love, so too, one who memorizes poetry of the great ones …they will begin to taste better to everyone they meet. And their eyes and face offer more of the sun—to the precious earths, our bodies are."

***

The “alchemy stones” can help us find Buddha in our pocket, and see more wonder in our self, others, and this world. What a deal!