Pearls of Wisdom: Rumi’s Alchemy

War and conflict will diminish as more people are exposed to values, wisdom and a passionate life. Violence is a reflection of inner conflict, peace reflects the pearl within that is smooth and well rounded by life. Poetry is the language of the heart, it takes you beyond appearances into the depth of truth. For me, it is my first language and my highest joy.

THE PEARLS OF PERSIA

Persian culture or Ottoman Empire?
Which is greater?
For the artist life blossoms in music, dance and lyric,
Calligraphy swirls in a rhythmic pattern weaving the tapestry of Rumi’s alchemy,
As his soul soars to greater heights.

The language of love converts the hardest heart of stone to bleed with pain of intense feeling,
As truth finds new levy’s to break as the torrent of passion runs faster than the stream to the sea.

The ocean outlet of inspiration becomes the irresistible new current transcending thinking to enter new spaces overflowing with the irises of promise,
Staring deeply into the wellspring of your eyes,
That know not the boundary of a passionate life.

The known is the pallet of an artist’s landscape,
The unknown is the home of the mystics,
That welcomes those who close their eyes to see,
For the doorway is a key hole that is the key,
To those seeking the adventure to unlock the truth of freedom.

The Sufi poets,
Write from bottom to top,
Right to left,
For what is right when there is nothing left?
Sufi’s – the flutes channelling the fresh winds of new ideas as change is another breath,
Dancing and twirling in an ecstatic reunion
as truth,
For this is the song of the soul that only the gods can hear,
When the mind returns to stillness.

The mountains rise as ancient monoliths reach for diamond lights in the sky of dreams,
Pouring liquid gold of new life into our nature,
To find that the rose abandons the thorns,
In favour of the fragrance that seduces the thoughtful into forgetting their sorrows,
Riding the sacred joys of harmony,
Remembering peace on earth,
Is the highest tawhid or primal root.

The great gardens of knowledge abound with varieties of all shapes and sizes,
From the rivers of Babylon to Balkh,
Scholars became Sufi’s,
For was Rumi a Shams?
For the body can decease but the memory lingers as a rainbow cloak of endless comfort,
Adorning protection from the loveless world,
That only knows reasons as limits,
For the limitless live in the embrace of love.

Intellect of the higher realms sees life as the mirror,
For on deeper reflection,
The pool of the world fills with tears of those who were unable to face the truth in illusion,
For the mind can deceive with clever dialogue,
Language tantalises tricksters as smoke screens,
Looking to caution darkness as inaction,
The status quo are unmoved by the mystery that does not exist,
For truth is the rough diamond many do not value,
For they are seeking gold in the dust in the midst of an economic crisis.

The Ottoman Empire sought to string the bow,
Sending arrows of fear to the four corners,
The current of civilisation is a string of pearls,
Receiving beauty as the highest value,
For human nature is the rose that blooms,
Fear is war torn on thorns that harm,
For all empires fall,
As the East and Occidental face West,
The capitalist crusades invent greed as need,
Uncontrolled weeds to be uprooted in order
To allow a new Garden of Eden to grow.

Post modernism will return to the classics,
Constantinople is the opal walking out
as Gaza is strip searched by Shylock,
Another Merchant of Venice.

Yet real power is the strength to survive,
There is strength in numbers that fund common unity,
As unity in the commons replenishes the food bank as alms,
Disarming hatred with humour,
Disarming politicians with public servants,
For within the remnants are the pearls of wisdom that are ever present,
When the ego is abandoned to serve only love.