For the love of Rumi

Poems that made me surrender my Soul to Rumi

I’ve been fascinated with the Sufi saint Rumi long before he became a vogue in the West or even before film director Imtiaz Ali used his couplet as the essence of his hit movie ‘Rockstar’. 

My love for Rumi's work runs more visceral- (We also share our birthday you see!*beaming*)

Perhaps, that was one reasons why I first Googled up his work long ago, and little did I know that it would change my outlook towards life and love forever. I bow to the grandeur of his poems. This grandeur comes from his full prostration to Shams. He wants us to do the same- to surrender to love. I surrender to him. 

Here’s top 5 reasons (read Poems) why:

Rumi wrote seamlessly- his poems had no titles. So, the titles I use here come from the feelings they evoke in me.

5. Nomadic Impulses

What’s truly alive is always changing. Rumi’s wanderings are beyond fields, the moon, the sky, even sex and orgasms, they are more aware and yet, they are more free-

You’ve so distracted me,

Your absence fans my love.

Don’t ask how.

Then you come near.

                                                               “Do not…” I say, and   

“Do not…”,you answer.

Don’t ask why

This delights me.

4. Making Meera out of Me

Poetry, especially a good one, is a very tricky thing. For it gives us an illusion of experiencing emotions without having to live them. The way Rumi writes, it forces us to shudder with love in the way my Meera or his Zuliekha did-

Zuleikha let everything be the name of Joseph,

from celery seeds to aloes wood. She loved him

So much she concealed his name in many phrases,

the inner meanings known only to her…..

Any complaint, it’s his being away.

When she’s hungry, it’s for him.

Thirsty, his name is a sherbet.

Cold, he’s fur. This is what

The Friend can do when one is in such love.

When one is united to the core of another,

To speak of that is to breathe the name Hu,

Empty of self & filled with love.

3. Refuge in Silence

Close the mouth, open the eyes. The light of the divine won’t use the door, only the window. To understand Rumi’s scriptures with his advocacy of the non-verbal, it is essential to taste silence. With that taste, comes a revelation that the divine presence and refuge in love, comes in a language more experiential-

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.

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.

2. Miracle

It’s rare, but when heart dissolves in love, a new love builds and there are miracles all around-

The way of love is not

a subtle argument.

The door there

is devastation.

Birds make great sky-circles

of their freedom.

How do they learn that?

They fall, and falling,

they’re given wings.

      But the no.1 poem that made me surrender to Rumi is

Sublime saloon
Have you ever been absent and present at the same time? Felt sobriety that contains all drunkenness Think about it, every revision of this vision will open a new chapter for you. I can say this with confidence because it happened to me-

You bind me, and I tear away in a rage

To open out into air, a round

Brightness, a candlepoint,

All reason, all love.

This confusing joy, your doing,

This hangover, your tender thorn.

You turn to look, I turn.

I’m not saying this right.

I am a jailed crazy who ties up spirit-woman.

What goes comes baack. Come back.

We never left each other.

A disbeliever hides disbelief,

But I will say his secret.

More and more awake, getting up at night,

Spinning and falling in love with Shams.