Poetry Break

One of the things I want to do now that I am back to the blog is comment on a wonderful book of poetry that was given to me as a gift. For lack of energy and time I will simply link here: http://books.google.com/books?id=Qyofbe8JTbYC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false The poet is Rumi, the year is anywhere beteen 1240 and 1260 or so, and the translation is done by Colman Barks, and the poems are life. Sure, they are love, friendship, and spiritual awakening, but if that isn't life, I don't know what is.

What I have been doing is reading slowly and marking things that pique my interest. I noticed the other day I have marked over 20 pages and don't want to forget why I marked them so I am going discuss a poem when I am short ideas or just because I like poems.

In Bowls of Food the lines "Those who work at a bakery do not know the taste of bread/like the hungry beggars do" made me think of a phrase that bounces around my head all the time: The cobbler's children never have new shoes.

In my home, I am always afraid that I will start a patio/wall/walk project and never finish it (like 'unfinished wall'), and become like the cobbler. And even while I think that I know in my heart that is not the point. The point is not seeing what is right in front of you, not loving what is closest to you. Or, in keeping with Rumi, not recognizing the way God touches everything every day (God or Shams, Rumi's muse). We shouldn't let others see the things we do not, we should help others see the beauty that is both within and around us. So much we take for granted would be desired by others, and that desire is what Rumi means by the beggars; they appreciate the bread more than the baker both because they get less to eat AND they do not see it as a burden.

Wow…too many threads there, confusion stemming from exhaustion, but both things in that last sentence are true, and even more. Go to the link above, the poem in question is on page 48. Don't stop there though, read a few more, the writing of Rumi is very eye opening!