Monday, April 19, 2010

the snow world melts


Think of the phoenix 
coming up out of ashes,
but not flying off.
For a moment we have form.
We can't see.
How can we be conscious 
and you be conscious
at the same time and separate?
Copper,when an alchemist 
works on it, loses its copper
qualities. Seeds in Spring
begin to be trees, no longer seed. 
Brushwood put in the fire changes. 
The snow-world melts.
You step in my footprint and it's gone.

It's not that I've done 
anything to deserve
this attention from you. 
Predestination and freewill: 
We can argue them,
but they're only ideas. 
What's real
is a presence, like Shams.

- Rumi, Ghazal 3071, version by Coleman Barks, from Open Secret

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