Sage medicine for a modern story

Hush child,
Don't weep yourself into a puddle.

Dissolving is easier than mopping up dirtied water and I don't have time to clean.

Run outside in your flowerprint cotton tunic,
Let your fingers graze the grasses and the raw baby dandelions ready to be plucked.

Put earth into your mouth little one,
Swallow it like you swallow sun, and then tell me you feel a little bit better.

We all hurt madly.

Pain is severe in the young ones these days - trauma hymns are sung too loud, I've heard every tune and still none I like more than my own.

Rough days will come they said.

And better days always lay ahead.

Just as the stars hide in the sky, so too, does eternal love live within you, cheerfully invisible but oh so deliciously present.

And yes, I also cry at night when I remember the longings and the grief.

But I pray for the ants and the seahorses and the specks of dust on my unswept floor.

And trivial matters become giants when we focus in our lens,

Unwind your scope,

Celebrate small victories.

Birthday cards and candles,
Kiss pecks on a newborn's head.

I delight in you little one as you run around in the field,
As you question and whine,
As you become shocked and terrified.

And yes, these are perfect feelings too,
But dissolving into light is much better,
And you know, I don't like to clean.

Leave the petals strewn on your soaked pillow,
Unleash and unfurl.
Pick up your string instrument,
Tune it and then break it.

Jealously lives in the desire to hold on to something, but we are the ones that are being held on to

By the great and passionate creator.

Let yourself be held,
Do not cling to the handlebars,
only callouses show us how much we think we care.

But even the softest hands lose control when you start to push them on the swing.

Little one, laugh inside your caugh and phlem.
Own your future and your breath.
The worms will show you how to recycle soiled wounds into life

And then,
Oh and then,
Surely your tears will dry. 

The Soul of Rumi

He says, "we are misquoted texts, made right when you say us."
and
we are returning.
Leave the rind and descend into the pith.
It is sweet and sour and no soap can take away your stickiness.
Fill with gratitude, chew a piece of sugarcane!

I am in love with the one to whom everything belongs!


Listen to the voice that says, it was for you I created the universe, then kill and be killed in love.

What is love?
He says, "love comes with a knife."
There are love stories and then there is obliteration into love!
Live that laughing silence of falling so madly in love.
Laughter is the lover's way!
yet, sometimes in the mad-house they gnaw on their chains -
This world is drenched with that drowning.

He says, "you must dive naked deeper, under, a thousand times deeper!"

some knots tighten, some loosen -
Open completely!
Lukewarm won't do : You're infinitely more alive.

You know, a lover doesn't fit in groups very well or with himself.

If you would just soak again the evening sky your garnet red,
then each candle moment could call upon new moths,
and I could pick a pick pocket's pocket.

I hurt and have sharp desire.

You cannot imagine how little it matters to me what people say!

My words are fire.
I have nothing to do with being famous or making grand judgements or know of shame.
When one of those generous ones invites you into his fire, go quickly!
Don't say,
"But will it burn me?
will it hurt?"

Gazelle and lioness walking together, soul light and sun, the same.You are the truth from foot to brow, now what else would you like to know?

I'll tell you, God-lovers, mostly in another world, read another book, with another eye,

So don't insist on going where you think you want to go, ask the way to the spring!
These sweet-jelly eyes we see with were so skillfully devised -
I could tell you your faces are very beautiful,
but they are wooden cages.
Would you believe me?

Don't search for one of your names, move beyond attachment to names.
Be ground, be crumbled, so wildflowers will come up where you are.

Work in the invisible world, he says,
even more than you do in this world.

Then you will know what love is!
And how to drown fully - as your breath increases - and fire is only fire when you burn yourself fully from within.

He says , "I am every spark, and every soul, and all the sugar in the world couldn't bribe me to leave your side."

And this is,
the soul,

of Rumi.

and the soul of all I know within,

and my lover is my beloved, and my beloved is my bone and blood - soul and organ - trash and treasure.

and love is love and love is less than the sum of it's parts - since it means nothing unless you feel YAH streaming through your veins!

are we home yet?

"Thanks," I said.

And I really meant it.

You laugh it off, but I think that's all you know how to do.

The way you hold me makes me know you care more than you might ever be able to say.

And I wonder, if maybe just once, you could let out the words for a coo.

Something tells me there is more to it,
something that pins the words to the inside of your heart,
and maybe,

maybe,

it's just me.

I wonder.

I do always wonder.

We spent the day cuddled, laughing, loving.

Your grandma hugged me and told me I was cute.

She wins though.

I don't even want to write this since it always seems like a dream but the purple sky last night made it clear to me that this is more than I ever thought it was.

I teared,
but you didn't notice.

The night was upon us, driving snaky roads and the fog lifts our hearts.
We sang out just like I always loved,
and in this moment,

no matter what the silence is before or after, I feel a heart skip and it won't stop skipping.

And then later,
in bed,

my heart fluttered and so fast.
I didn't want to listen to the shrill since it told me how much I care
and I do, and I do, and I say thanks because that's what I know how to say.

Always wondering if it is you or me,
and I think it's the both of us - still petrified and still so delighted.

You bought me a chocolate bar.

I don't know why.

It's minty and I like it but it's got no texture, it's filled with air, and I wonder,

is it metaphor again?

& &

I just want to buy things for my home.

I want home.

I want you.

I want you in my home,
then
I think
I will know.

...

laughter and something more

and we laugh so easily.

shh,

sugar rub my soul,

adorn me with giggles and pure light.

It only flows when it knows how to,

and we know how to,

be
in
flow.

and we laugh so easily,
and I wonder how I could have ever not laughed.

Because this is so real
and beautiful
and something so refreshing.