A Light Within His Light
I circled awhile with each of the intelligences,
the nine fathers that control the levels
of spirit-growth.
I revolved
for years with the stars through
each astrological sign.
I disappeared into the kingdom of nearness.
I saw what I have seen, receiving nourishment
as a child lives in the womb.
Personalities are born once,
a mystic many times.
Wearing the body-robe, I've been busy
in the market, weighing and arguing prices.
Sometimes I have torn the robe off
with my own hands and thrown it away.
I've spent long nights in monasteries,
and I have slept with those who claim to believe
nothing on the porches of pagodas,
just traveling through.
When someone feels jealous, I am inside
the hurt and the need to possess.
When anyone is sick, I feel
feverish and dizzy.
I am cloud and rain being released,
and then the meadow as it soaks it in.
I wash the rains of mortality
from the cloth around a dervish.
I am the rose of eternity, not made of
water or fire or the wandering wind,
or even earth. I pay with those.
I am not Shams of Tabriz,
but a light within his light.
If you see me, be careful.
Tell no one what you've seen.
Ghazal (Ode) 331,
Version by Coleman Barks,
"Say I Am You"
Maypop, 1994
