Hafiz Based Derivatives

Treasure

Hafiz carried
the
toothache of
love
around
for
forty years.

One day
a certain dentist
filled that tooth
with gold.

The words
of Hafiz
all
became treasure.


A River

Hafiz was a
river
that rose from
the ocean,
fell from
the sky,
and ran
into my glass.

I drank
and he became
my tears
which flowed
downstream,
watered the crops,
and sank into the Earth,
only to rejoin
the river, and
enter the sea.

Like a shiver,
down the spine
of the world.


Love Play

Oh you
who fill my heart
with song,
know that
you are the
beloved
of that one
deep inside
who whispers
in adoration;

"Wake up toys,
and we
will play."


RSVP


The Infinite
is having a party.

Even though
marines are
blowing the brains
out of the heads
of nine year old
girls,
and splattering them
on the walls of
homes in Baghdad.

Even though
they are annihilating
her old mother,
raping her teenage
sister,
destroying her dad's
existence
in the street.

Even though
Mujaheddin are
sending
rocket propelled
grenades
flying into the
market place;
exploding
thousand pound
bombs
outside
the mosque.

Endlessness
is having a party,
having sent out
invitations to
everyone,
marked,
RSVP.


Gossip

I told them the
secrets,
all about your
love affairs, Krishna,
but they did not
believe me.

They whispered to
one another,
'consider the source.'

And so I must
continue to
gossip
about you.


Vacancy

When a house
stands
vacant,
curious people come
round
peering in the windows.

My solitude is
proof
that the idiot
who lives here
has not yet
moved out.


Rumi Was Here

If i speak of
the unconditioned,
will you know
what I am saying?

When there is no
time or place,
no matter or
creation,
then I must
only refer to
a vast nothing
in my song.

So why do I
shiver when
memory of
that
no thing
kicks in?

Endlessness gives
gifts of finitude,
so vast they are
beyond
comprehension.

How can you and I
be expected to
remember this?

When Hafiz
stumbled into
the walled garden
of truth,
scrawled on the
tiles, he found
this graffito:

Rumi was here.


A Puzzle

The greater infinity
of the universe
is contained in the
lesser infinity of the
individual mind.

The greater infinity
of the
individual mind is
contained in the
lesser infinity of
the universe.

As if a jug
fallen into the
sea,
was drawn up
in the fisher's net
and all the sea
was within it.

The puzzle is
even that from
which all infinities
spring,
might be known
in some way
by nothing more
than a man or
a woman, while
doing the
dishes
after breakfast.


Indecision

Ramie the cat,
his love
motor
running,
cannot decide,
whether to
curl up in my
lap,
or lie atop
the book of
verse by Hafiz
that I have just
laid aside
as he
approached.