Put This Design In Your Carpet

 

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brad w.

Camas, WA

Put This Design In Your Carpet

Spiritual experience is a modest woman
who looks lovingly at one man.

It's a great river where ducks live
happily, and crows drown.  The visible

bowl of form contains food that is both
nourishing and a source of heartburn.

There is an unseen presence that we honor
that gives the gifts.

You're water.  We're the millstone.
You're wind.  We're dust blown up into shapes.

You're spirit.  We're the opening and closing
of our hands.  You're the clarity.

We're this language that tries to say it.
You're joy.  We're all the different kinds.

of laughing.  Any movement or sound
is a profession of faith.  as the millstone

grinding is explaining how it believes
in the river! No metaphor can say this.

but I can't stop pointing to the beauty
Every moment and place says

"Put this design in your carpet!"
---
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi-Rumi

Translation from the Persian by Coleman Barks

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