Some Kiss We Want

There is some kiss we want with

our whole lives, the touch of



spirit on the body. Seawater

begs the pearl to break its shell.



And the lily, how passionately

it needs some wild darling! At



night, I open the window and ask

the moon to come and press its



face against mine. Breathe into

me. Close the language- door and



open the love window. The moon

won't use the door, only the window.

From Soul of Rumi by Coleman Barks

Let go of your worries

Let go of your worries
and be completely clear-hearted,
like the face of a mirror
that contains no images.
If you want a clear mirror,
behold yourself
and see the shameless truth,
which the mirror reflects.
If metal can be polished
to a mirror-like finish,
what polishing might the mirror
of the heart require?
Between the mirror and the heart
is this single difference:
the heart conceals secrets,
while the mirror does not.

 The Divani Shamsi Tabriz, XIII

Only Breath

Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu
Buddhist, sufi, or zen. Not any religion


or cultural system. I am not from the East
or the West, not out of the ocean or up


from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not
composed of elements at all. I do not exist,


am not an entity in this world or in the next,
did not descend from Adam and Eve or any


origin story. My place is placeless, a trace
of the traceless. Neither body or soul.


I belong to the beloved, have seen the two
worlds as one and that one call to and know,


first, last, outer, inner, only that
breath breathing human being.

Mewlana Jalaluddin Rumi, An Excerpt from the translations of Coleman Barks