GHAZAL


Be gentle, o pilgrim, be gentle with your spirit.
Don't try to murder your 'lower part', and do not fear it.

The lower self will wither away like a Marxian state
When Love reaches its zenith at the appointed date.

When your eye has been made single, and your body full of Light,
You'll recall your former struggles as foreplay, not as fight.

With each seeming separation, you desired the Beloved more dearly,
And though it may sometimes seem late at night, it's really just so early

That the Morning Star hasn't risen yet, to say nothing of the Sun,
Which will eclipse the whole Night Sky in the Glory of that One.

The Road before you exists to ripen, not abuse you,
But if wrestler-pinned-to-mat you must be, that way too God can use you.

Any Surrender counts, no matter how arrived at.
But be self-gentle if you can, it's easier like that.

 

back                      next
Baba Poems         Recent Poems
Poetry            Home