a short and sweet story of how to go (and how not to go) to school...
The Idiot's Warehouse
I know the idiot's warehouse
Is always full.
I know each of us
Could run back and forth from there
All day long
And show everyone our vast collection.
Though tonight, Hafız,
Retire from the madness for an hour,
Gather with some loyal friends
Or sit alone
And
Sing beautiful songs
To God.
Is always full.
I know each of us
Could run back and forth from there
All day long
And show everyone our vast collection.
Though tonight, Hafız,
Retire from the madness for an hour,
Gather with some loyal friends
Or sit alone
And
Sing beautiful songs
To God.
-Hafız, our poet friend from Persia
5 comments:
i like our friend hafiz a lot lol
esp the first one you read to me:
BECOMING HUMAN
Once a man came to me and spoke for hours about
"His great visions of God" he felt he was having.
He asked me for confirmation, saying,
"Are these wondrous dreams true?"
I replied, "How many goats do you have?"
He looked surprised and said,
"I am speaking of sublime visions
And you ask
About goats!"
And I spoke again saying,
"Yes, brother - how many do you have?"
"Well, Hafiz, I have sixty-two."
"And how many wives?"
Again he looked surprised, then said,
"Four."
"How many rose bushes in your garden,
How many children
Are your parents still alive,
Do you feed the birds in winter?"
And to all he answered.
Then I said,
"You asked me if I thought your visions were true,
I would say that they were if they make you become
More human,
More kind to every creature and plant
That you know."
Terima Kasih means "recieve/accept love" and is how people say "thanks," in Malay. "Gracias," as Octavio Paz tells us, expresses and receives grace. Here, Hafiz gives a little insight into how to gracefully receive love, how to accept life in its ups and its drop-kicked downs...
TIRED OF SPEAKING SWEETLY
Love wants to reach out and manhandle us,
Break all our teacup talk of God.
If you had the courage and
Could give the Beloved His choice, some nights,
He would just drag you around the room
By your hair,
Ripping from your grip all those toys in the world
That bring you no joy.
Love sometimes gets tired of speaking sweetly
And wants to rip to shreds
All your erroneous notions of truth
That make you fight within yourself, dear one,
And with others,
Causing the world to weep
On too many fine days.
God wants to manhandle us,
Lock us inside of a tiny room with Himself
And practice His dropkick.
The Beloved sometimes wants
To do us a great favor:
Hold us upside down
And shake all the nonsense out.
But when we hear
He is in such a "playful drunken mood"
Most everyone I know
Quickly packs their bags and hightails it
Out of town.
haha.... the next times i have my moments of ups and downs, it'll be great to remember that God might just want to "rip to shreds
all our erroneous notions of truth"
or "hold us upside down
And shake all the nonsense out."
thanks kopi kampung :-))))
TO BUILD A SWING
You carry
All the ingredients
To turn your life into a nightmare-
Don’t mix them!
You have all the genius
To build a swing in your backyard
For God.
That sounds
Like a hell of a lot more fun.
Let’s start laughing, drawing blueprints,
Gathering our talented friends.
I will help you
With my divine lyre and drum.
Hafiz
Will sing a thousand words
You can take into your hands,
Like golden saws,
Silver hammers,
Polished teakwood,
Strong silk rope.
You carry all the ingredients
To turn your existence into joy,
Mix them, mix
Them!
THEN WINKS
Everything is clapping today,
Light,
Sound,
Motion,
All movement.
A rabbit I pass pulls a cymbal
From a hidden pocket
Then winks.
This causes a few planets and I
To go nuts
And start grabbing each other.
Someone sees this,
Calls a
Shrink,
Tries to get me
Committed
For
Being too
Happy.
Listen: this world is the lunatic’s sphere,
Don’t always agree it’s real,
Even with my feet upon it
And the postman knowing my door
My address is somewhere else.
AND FOR NO REASON
And
For no reason
I start skipping like a child.
And
For no reason
I turn into a leaf
That is carried so high
I kiss the Sun’s mouth
And dissolve.
And
For no reason
A thousand birds
Choose my head for a conference table,
Start passing their
Cups of wine
And their wild songbooks all around.
And for every reason in existence
I begin to eternally,
To eternally laugh and love!
When I turn into a leaf
And start dancing,
I run to kiss our beautiful Friend
And I dissolve in the Truth
That I am.
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