“Bringing the beautiful desert birds 

to the Oasis, so you can drink heaven.”

To me, the above are such lovely Rumi and Hafiz lines, from a poem below, and really encapsulates what both of their lives have been so much about for hundreds of years. 

Good poetry is such a vital—needed language for the spiritually advanced. As music can be for the masses; look how stadiums can be filled with swaying hearts and swaying limbs so glad to be there. 

And surely music too, can be such a friend to the more evolved— evolved of compassion, evolved with creativity to such an extent— one’s love can leave something in this world to be of help to many creatures— on two legs and four, and with fins and wings. Just planting a tree can do that, and be an important legacy. Think some variety of Crabapple where the fruit can linger all through the winter and a squirrel or raccoon can say, “Thanks.” And then there are the blossoms in spring, where some of the bee’s sacred labor may wind up in a honey jar on your table. 

The best music that has great lyrics is real poetry; like that wonderful recording: “Suzanne” by Leonard Cohen. 

the bird songs  

    the sky sings 

       draws us close

We gravitate toward beauty. We can look up at the stars or over at some hills, or upon a meadow or stream in hopes of some kind of a wink, or kiss. The earth, like us, nurses upon the sun's breast. We nurse upon the breast of God— existence, for the essential nutrients our soul needs. 

We just need to become less clumsy when touching the intimate regions of Her— that are all things. That clumsy can be in hurting others, or our self. Then so much we can miss. Yes, so much one can miss with their lawsuits of unforgiveness and any lasting grudges.

      Gazing upon the most intimate regions of Her*, 

      is now how I see all things.

      — Hafiz

      *of Her: of God ...

That is a knockout Hafiz line to me, as so many of his are.

 

All the above came about from expounding on what I wrote the other day and posted on my spiritual community’s international web-chat site. And that wonderful provocative Hafiz line is from my vast unpublished work of his. Here is what I basically posted the other day on that web-chat site; but all below— the “Renderings by Daniel Ladinsky” are new; as is all above here.

***

Just wrote this lovely, deep and true verse— mixing together some images from an old Victorian Rumi & Hafiz poem, which now goes:

“I have become so one with the Source,

God has made me so fertile, I am able 

to quench anyone's desires, so come 

close to me, my dears.

Look, my name is now golden, and my

books holy, they will bring the beautiful 

desert birds to the Oasis* so you can 

drink heaven.

And bring you back to the top of the 

Mountain,* where we can easily soar 

together, I one wing and you the other; 

and the Divine— the Infinite Divine 

our body, as One.”

*The Oasis, the Mountain: the Beloved.  

— Hafiz & Rumi       

    Rendering by Daniel Ladinsky 

The beautiful desert birds, those are us. We know we belong in the Sky. We know we need to integrate with the Sun again. How will we ever really feel complete until our eyes and sounds and movements are an Oasis to all within our ken. Until we are such a knowing, maybe even a laughing Buddha— we can embrace all things. And… 

And place our head upon the foot of an ant, 

a shrine as holy as any.