ALL THE HEMISPHERES
HAFIZ
Leave the familiar for a while. Let your senses
and bodies stretch out
like a welcomed season onto meadows and
shores and hills.
Open up to the roof. Make a new watermark
on your excitement and love.
Like a blooming night flower, bestow your vital
fragrance of happiness and giving upon our
intimate assembly.
Change rooms in your mind for a day. All the
hemispheres in existence lie beside an equator
in your soul.
Greet yourself in your thousand other forms as
you mount the hidden tide and travel back home.
All the hemispheres in heaven are sitting around
a campfire chatting, while
stitching themselves together into the great circle
inside of you.
Translation by Daniel Ladinsky, A Year With Hafiz: Daily Contemplations
Oh George, what a wonderful poem - and one we should all subscribe to. I shall try to put it into practice.
ReplyDeleteSo glad you liked this, Pat. It resonated deeply with me, especially at this point when I am going through many life changes. Perhaps more than ever before, I can relate to the need to leave the familiar, to explore new hemispheres of experience, and to greet a "thousand other forms" of myself.
DeleteA wonderful poem, George, about all the worlds within and without us, challenging us to explore them.
ReplyDeleteYes, Robert. Here's to leaving the familiar and embarking upon new explorations, both within and without.
Deletea favorite among favorites ... and I love your abstract pieces.
ReplyDeleteI so relate to this poem George. Life is an Adventure.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Gwen. So glad you liked the poem. It's a good reminder of our need to break out of our comfort zones from time to time. As Hafiz recognizes, there are many dimensions to each of our lives.
DeleteThanks, Teresa. Glad you liked this post and the image. I just found your comment today in my "awaiting moderation" file. For some reason, it never appeared in my email.
ReplyDeleteI love the poem, George. Aren't we cosmic beings!
ReplyDeleteYes indeed, Ruth, we are each part of some cosmic consciousness. The poems references to taking leave of the familiar and changing room in one's mind for a day really resonated with me.
ReplyDelete