Rumi's "Love is a Stranger"

I've never considered myself to be a connoisseur of poetry.  I'm a plot-driven reader and I have a difficult time slowing down to experience the nuances of poetry. Still, I can't help but being moved by Sappho's poems and those of Jelaluddin Rumi, and I am grateful to this program for introducing them to me.

 

The prologue to the text states that the poems are meant to be read on a metaphorical, spiritual level, but I feel that the work is dense enough on a literal reading to provide a level of depth that needs contemplation.   Any compilation of works provide a variety of pieces to be read, analyzed and judged independently, with some pieces which jump out and speak to you. 

 

This poem speaks to me:

 

A House for the Naked

 

It's late and it's raining, my friends;

let's go home.  Let's leave these ruins

we've haunted like owls.

Even though these blonde beauties beckon,

let's go home.  All the reasons offered

by the sensible, dull, and sorrowful

can't darken our hearts now;

nor can all this phantom love play,

this imaginary paradise hold us back.

Some see the grain but not the harvest.

Don't ask too many "how's" or "why's".

Let beasts graze.

Come home to the real celebration and music.

Shams has built a house for the naked and the pure.

 

Works Cited:

Rumi, Jelaluddin. Love is a Stranger. Trans. Kabir Helminski. Boston: Shambhala, 1993. Print.