FOR RUMI (1207 – 1273) [Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī جلالالدین محمد رومی]
Poet: Keith Johnson [Wellington New Zealand]
By: Keith Johnson, Wellington, NZ
In the wake amid the agate sea
Burst flecks then forms of foam
And as they rise among the waves
The whirling white is whipped
And sprays and sheets of lace
Take flight and stream the winds.
Look then at the mighty sea
That moves by dawn and moon
Its deep is bold and cold and green
Yet seething frays its very edge -
Watch then the twisting curlicues
And see them part to shreds and fade.
We are out of kilter, poised then lost
Bound as the wheel revolves
Open to the heavens yet first blinded
To the ocean’s meaning and its play:
Is it not time to awaken to the waves
And the rolling breakers that enchant us?
Below the water, tide on tide still ebbs
As veils of sheen are stripped away
And we must give ourselves to ecstasy
To sense what moves the greater depths
And also shifts the glistened surfaces
That wind and light now dance upon.
