Who is
this king
That
forms another king out of the ground,
Who for
the sake of two beggars
Makes
himself a beggar?
Who is
this with his hand out
Saying,
Please give just a little,
So I can
give you a kingdom.
He
heals. He enlivens.
He tells
the water to boil
And the
steam to fade into air.
He makes
the dying world eternal
His
greatest alchemy
Is how
he undoes the binding
That
keeps love from breathing deep.
He
loosens the chest.
With no
tool he fashions where we live.
Do not
grieve for your rusty, iron heart.
He will
polish it to a steel mirror.
And as
you are being lowered into the ground,
Closed
away from friends, don’t cry.
He turns
the ants and the snakes
Into
beautiful new companions.
Every
second he changes cruelty
To a
loyal friendship.
Remember
the proverb:
Eat the
grapes, do not keep talking about the garden,
Eat the
grapes.
From a
rough stone ledge
Come a
hundred marble fountains.
Out of
unconditional emptiness
Comes
this planet with all its qualities.
Lake
water over there,
Out of
one huge NO
Comes a
chorus of yeses.
Rivers
of light flow from human eyes,
And
consider your ears, where language
Alchemizes
into amber.
He gives
the soul a house,
Then
another and another.
He
descends into dirt
And makes
it majesty.
Be
silent now.
Say
fewer and fewer praise poems.
Let
yourself become living poetry.
rumi
