Cupping My Hands Like a Mountain Valley

[The mountains of Clayoquot Sound, by Phillip Colla of oceanlight.com]

This poem by Hafiz has so many glorious lines in it, such inspired beauty, that I decided to share it with you this morning. Ah, to see the world like Hafiz - such shining wonder!

Like the way the valleys of the earth

Cup their hands for light and drink,

Like the way the desert opens up its sweet mouth

and laughs

When someone melts pearls in the sky

And rain, rain

Returns like a divine lover

With a hundred wonderful gifts

O, the words from the true Teacher

Bring my mind and cells

Such sacred nourishment and life.

When the moon is full

It gets gregarious and likes to chat.

I have heard it say,

"Look what can happen, dear seeker,

When you lean your graceful arms toward God in prayer,

Look at all that amorous light you can catch

That will help the night musicians and your soul

Get loose."

I stand revolving like a great dervish

In an ecstatic submission to His will.

I have been hired to perform the final act of grace.

I am the priest in every sacred wedding tent.

Tonight, I am a sovereign planet

With a great wool skirt.

I am a divine artist

On stage before God's entire court.

With each sublime whirl and orbit

I bow to the Sun's feet.

I fill my glass for you, dear pilgrim,

Beneath the luminous leaking barrel.

I then pour all the contents of my heart

And eye's experience

Upon this banquet table,

For your body and mind are a precious silk cloth

Hafiz has come to dye!

I circumnambulate the Truth from the sky

Like a golden vulture.

I have forsaken all the crippling manners

Of even the most  royal birds.

I carry a lute in my talons like a mortal weapon.

Please, please enter into a holy battle with me.

For I am God's friend

who maims with compassion!

And you are a lost dove upon His wing.

I can teach you

How to bribe the Beloved with an angelic tune

So that the divine manna of His glance

Will fall upon your palate.

Some days I know

That you are en route to your own slaughter.

Some days I know

You are being trained as an emmissary

To serve in His office of joy.

Dear one,

Last night, in the gallery of Reality

I saw a portrait I will never forget:

The Beloved was stirring a pot

With a spoon the size of a universe

And when He lifted it

I saw this whole world and its affairs

Were not even a floating speck of barley

Before the radiance of two diamonds

That were His brilliant cheeks!

All I could do when beholding that vision

Was to fall upon my knees

And cup my hands like a humble valley

Huddled between the thighs

Of this exquisite, holy mountain range

And try to build a reservoir to hold the Beloved's

Resplendent smile

That offers myriad tickets to freedom,

That offers the splendor of hearing God sing!

I am a spinning wheel upon the infinite.

I have swallowed that axis and hub

That fathered light and truth.

..................

God offers love, love, love

With His own hands,

To your beautiful parched  holy mouth.

..................

Tie yourself as a bell

To herds of mating camels

And spring flocks of clouds and birds.

Tie yourself as spawning stars

And to leaping whales

In a game of tag with the Moon!

Tie yourself to everything in creation

That got poured from God's magic hat.

........................

Dear wayfarer,

Now indulge me in a sober moment.

Please set down your glass.

I can help you write a letter of resignation

To all your fears and sadness.

........................

For all in existence is just spinning like this

Sweet earth

In a divine current.

Why not dance like Hafiz in the cup,

In the cup of His spoon?

...........................

Why not use my verse as a golden camel bell

That you can turn upside down into a chalice

And fill with wine?

Hafiz,

You are the divine camel bell

That the Beloved is ringing with His own hand.

...............................

Dear ones,

"God has sown Himself onto my tongue."

Like the way

The valleys of the earth

Cup their hands for light and drink.

Like

The way

The desert opens up its sweet mouth

And laughs

When someone melts pearls in the sky

And rain, rain

Returns like a divine lover

With a thousand wonderful

Gifts,

O, the luminous words of my Beloved

Now bring my mind and soul

Such a sacred

Nourishment

And

Peace.