Three Rumi's for today

Today I will let three Rumi's poems speak for me. For I know no other persons who can write from the heart better than him. Yet.

A SUBTLE TRUTH

If you want money more than anything,
you will be bought and sold.

If you have a greed for food,
you will become a loaf of bread.

This is a subtle truth.
Whatever you love, you are.

***
A DYING DOG

A dog is dying on the road.
A man is weeping beside him. A beggar comes by.

Why the tears? This dog hunted game for me.
He kept watch at night.
Many times he drove away thieves.

What’s wrong? Hunger has weakened him.
What’s in the bag? Your food sack looks full.

Those are leftovers from last night.
I’ll eat them later.
Give a little to the dog.

I give him these tears instead.
They are easier to come by.
Food of the road costs hard-earned money.

The beggar curses the man and leaves.
The beggar is right. The man’s values are reversed.
Tears are worth more than money.
Tears are blood distilled into water.

Pay attention to those who want to change
so badly that they cry and dissolve
into loving kindness and freedom.

***
SILKWORMS

The hurt you embrace
becomes joy.

Call it to your arms
where it can change.

A silkworm eating leaves
makes a cocoon.

Each of us weaves a chamber
of leaves and sticks.

Silkworm begin to truly exist
as they disappear inside that room.

Without legs, we fly.
When I stop speaking,

this poem will close,
and open its silent wings…


From Coleman Barks’s A year with Rumi, Dec 27, Dec 12, and Oct 23.