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From Conference of the Birds (1177 AD) by Farid al-din Attar, Islamic Saint and Mystic
“Come, you lost atoms, to your Centre draw, And be the Eternal Mirror that you saw: Rays that have wandered into darkness wide, Return, and back into your Sun subside.”
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From the unlocked cage of my heart White doves of love go winging Wild larks of sunrise singing The ice of my heart is broken, broken Joys fountain leaps in the air And all the while no word was spoken I only looked at something fair
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Haiku Unrhymed Japanese verse usually containing 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively. Haiku often relies on natural images and themes. Believed to have originated in the 17th century founded on the Zen Buddhist philosophy of simplicity, and achieving perfection through omitting the superfluous.
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the v-shape
Katrina Larsen © 2008
Night shifts to day Sun rises over clouds A new beginning.
S.D. © 2008
God is the shortest axis From naught to infinity, Manifest to void.
S.D. © 2008
balmy night
Katrina Larsen © 2008
The old rice field;
Katrina Larsen © 2008
Without Warning Sappho |
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To contact |
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All poems are protected by copyright and should not be reprinted without permission. |
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Photograph by Barry Berger © 2008 |
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From One-Handed Basket Weaving by Rumi (1369-1420)
Too hot in summer and too cold in winter. But the body's desires, in another way, are like The beauty of careful sewing on a shirt
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Onward and Upward I pass the vale. I breast the steep. I bear the cross: the cross bears me Light leads me on to light. I weep For joy at what I hope to see When, scaled at last the arduous height, For every painful step I trod, I traverse worlds on worlds of light, And pierce some deeper depth of God
John Charles Earle 1917 |
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To view a Poet’s Profile - click the link on the Poet’s name. |
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THE STORY OF A PEARL excerpt from The Bustan of Sa’ di
A single drop of rain fell from a cloud in the sky, But was filled with shame when it saw the sea so wide.
‘Next to the sea then, who am I? If the sea exists, then how can I?’
While looking down on itself With the eyes of contempt, An oyster in its shell, Took it in for nourishment.
And so it was, that its fate was sealed by this event, And it became a famous pearl fit to adorn a king’s head.
Having descended to the depths, It was now exalted to the heights. On the portal of non-existence it went knocking, Until it finally was transformed into being.
Islamic (Sufi) Mystic and Poet Al-Din Sa’di (1175-1291)
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DRAGON OF THE CLOUDS By Lee Evans © 2008
Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further. Job 38:11
You have seen him in your wildest dreams, Flames shooting from his mouth Like lightning through the shuddering sky. Those talons! Those scales! That phantasmagorical tail, Vanishing into the Imagination! Have you ever stared into yourself As piercingly as he stares?
He descends to earth in an unknown form. The havoc that he wreaks with your norms Is the means of your salvation.
He contemplates the liquidity of things Till he becomes like a rotten taproot teeming with ants. He is the void itself, comprehending all, Intangible to all except his Chosen Ones.
He breaks the laws that criminals have made; He worships all Gods and denies their divinity; He covets and he steals his neighbors’ property, Bestowing it upon all those who are in need.
His brother’s blood cries out to him From the bowels of Mother Earth; He takes murderers lives in his own hands, And remodels them in his image like clay.
He heals the sick on the Sabbath, And yet whiles away the weekdays in Taoist repose.
His neighbor’s wives become disciples, And copulate with him in the embrace of yang and yin.
He bears false witness in a courtroom of liars, And violates all commandments carved in stone.
No being can reject him, Or guess his whereabouts, Or seize him in the act of his transgressions.
Look there! The heavens yawn, afire with his breathing! His eyes are the sun and moon, The stars his glittering fangs, His nostrils billow forth profundities that are his veil!
Indicted by the Saints for his crimes against morality, He is condemned to death, But escapes their righteous wrath by arising from the grave.
He mocks your realities, Surrendering to his own almighty will, Gliding among cerebral cumulous, lost to your conditions, But never losing sight of what you really are in him.
This Dragon of the Clouds: You can no more control him Than the Inner Light that casts you as its shadow. Those talons! Those scales! That phantasmagorical tail, Vanishing into the Imagination! Have you ever stared into yourself As piercingly as he stares? |
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“Learn to self-conquest, persevere thus for a time, and you will perceive very clearly the advantage which you gain from it. As soon you apply yourself to orison (prayer), you will at once feel your senses gather themselves together.“ - St Theresa |
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The Poetic Heart Mysticism, Spirituality & Haiku |
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Let your life be that of a rose |
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Great Mystery Publishing |
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The Poetic Heart |
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The Poetic Heart is now divided into different topics—Love & Friendship; Mysticism, Spirituality & Haiku; Animals & Nature; Miscellaneous, and War & Peace - containing poems, song lyrics, quotes and links to poet profiles.
************** Click here for poetry submission details. |
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“If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it.” - Toni Morrison
“There is one spectacle grander than the sea, that is the sky; there is one spectacle grander than the sky, that is the interior of the soul.” - Victor Hugo
“Physical strength can never permanently withstand the impact of spiritual force.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt
“The chief problem about death, incidentally, is the fear there may be no afterlife—a depressing thought, particularly for those who have bothered to shave. Also, there is a fear that there is an afterlife but no one will know where it’s being held.” - Woody Allen
“We sometimes congratulate ourselves at the moment of waking from a troubled dream; it may also be so the moment after death.” - Nathaniel Hawthorne
“After death you will be what you were before your birth.” - Arthur Schopenhauer
“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.” - Martin Luther King Jr., Accepting Nobel Peace Prize, Dec. 10, 1964
“The problem is that we see what we have been taught to see, but is really reality?” - John Dobson (Astronomer)
“Cosmology has always been -- and will by definition always remain -- a borderland between science and philosophy -- some would say a religion...if we admit the Universe to be inhabited by a vast number of purposeful components then the thought cannot be far away that perhaps the Universe itself might be purposive...” - Richard Michael Pasichnyk
“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.” - Carl Jung (psychologist) "Memories, Dreams, Reflections".
“Solitude is strength; to depend on the presence of the crowd is weakness. The man who needs a mob to nerve him is much more alone than he imagines.” - Paul Brunton (Author and mystic)
“The aim of life is self-development. To realize one's nature perfectly - that is what each of us is here for. “ - Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)
“It is better to travel well than to arrive.”
“A one-planet deity has for me little appeal.” - Harlow Shipley
“The density of matter in the Universe is only 20 drops of water in a billion cubic miles. That's all the creation the good Lord's come up with, and it's no big thing…” -John Dobson, Astronomer
“I am happy because I am growing daily and I am honestly not knowing where the limit lies. To be certain, every day there can be a revelation or a new discovery. “ - Bruce Lee (American actor and martial arts expert)
Pray
Tina Cousins © 2008
“Invest in the human soul. Who knows, it might be a diamond in the rough.” - Mary McLeod Bethune
“Science can point out dangers, but science cannot turn the direction of minds and hearts, That is the province of spiritual powers within and without our very beings—powers that are the mysteries of life itself.” - Oren Lyons
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Is there another life? Shall I awake and find all this a dream? There must be, we cannot be created for this sort of suffering.” - John Keats
What Zen does, is to delineate itself on the infinite canvas of time and space, the way flying wild geese cast their shadow on the water below without any idea of doing so, while the water reflects the geese just as naturally and unintentionally.” - D. T. Suzuki
“Zen makes a religion of tranquility. Zen is not a religion which arouses emotions, causing tears to race down the face from our eyes or stirring us to shout aloud the name of God.” - Sokei-an
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ZEN ANGELS By Lee Evans @ 2008
In the Third Heaven they laugh, naked, innocent-- as Master Suzuki holds up a spoon.
To intellectuals they remain enigmas, maybe heretics-- unconscious in the Godhead, their desert cemetery.
You who are only partially dead cannot enjoy the Resurrection: Slain in Christ, they have attained to Nothing.
For all you know, they could be your next door neighbors! Why not invite them over for a cup of tea? |
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“The only Zen you find on the top of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.” - Robert M. Pirsig
“Zen is a way of liberation, concerned not with good or bad or advantageous, but what is.” - Alan Watts |
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THE DIVINE IMAGE By William Blake
To Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love All pray in their distress; And to these virtues of delight Return their thankfulness.
For Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love Is God, our father dear, And Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love Is Man, his child and care.
For Mercy has a human heart, Pity, a human face, And Love, the human form divine, And Peace, the human dress.
Then every man of every clime That prays to the human form divine: Love, Mercy, Pity, Peace.
And all must love the human form In heathen, turk or jew. Where Mercy, Love & Pity dwell There God is dwelling too. |
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TO THE EVENING STAR By William Blake
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