Favorite Spiritual Poems

[Sky Dancer]

The grapes of my body can only become wine
After the winemaker tramples me.
I surrender my spirit like grapes to his trampling
So my inmost heart can blaze and dance with joy.
Although the grapes go on weeping blood and sobbing
"I cannot bear any more anguish, any more cruelty"
The trampler stuffs cotton in his ears: "I am not working in ignorance
You can deny me if you want, you have every excuse,
But it is I who am the Master of this Work.
And when through my Passion you reach Perfection,
You will never be done praising my name."

Rumi, Sufi Mystic, Islam

 

[Sky Dancer]

Silence
A day of Silence

Can be a pilgrimage in itself.



A day of Silence

Can help you listen

To the Soul play

Its marvellous lute and drum.



Is not most talking

A crazed defence of a crumbling fort?



I thought we came here

To surrender in Silence,



To yield to Light and Happiness,



To Dance within

In celebration of Love’s Victory!

Hafiz, Sufi Poet, Islam

 

[dilloduck]

Rub-a-dub-dub
Thanks for the grub
YAAAAY god !

 

[Sky Dancer]

Dive deep O mind,dive deep in the ocean of God's Beauty;

If you descend to the uttermost depths,

There you will find the gem of Love...."

Ramakrishna, Hindu

 

[Sky Dancer]

Where I wander - You!
Where I ponder - You!
Only You everywhere, You, always, You.
You, You, You.
When I am gladdened - You!
And when I am saddened - You!
Only You, everywhere You!
You, You, You.
Sky is You!
Earth is You!
You above! You below!
In every trend, at every end,
Only You, everywhere You!



Levi Yitzchak of Berditchov, Jewish Mystic
Translated by: Harry Rabinowicz

 

[Sky Dancer]

Gone, Gone

Gone beyond,

Gone completely beyond,

Awake!

So be it.

Prajnaparamita, the Heart of Perfect Wisdom, Buddhist

 

[Sky Dancer]

PLEASE CALL ME BY MY TRUE NAMES

Don’t say that I will depart tomorrow—
even today I am still arriving.
Look deeply: every second I am arriving
to be a bud on a Spring branch,
to be a tiny bird, with still-fragile wings,
learning to sing in my new nest,
to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,
to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.
I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,
to fear and to hope.
The rhythm of my heart is the birth and
death
of all that are alive.
I am the mayfly metamorphosing
on the surface of the river.
And I am the bird
that swoops down to swallow the mayfly.
I am the frog swimming happily
in the clear water of pond.
And I am also the grass-snake
that silently feeds itself on the frog.
I am the child in Uganda, all skin and
bones,
my legs as thin as bamboo sticks.
And I am the arms merchant
selling deadly weapons to Uganda.
I am the twelve-year-old girl,
refugee on a small boat.
who throws herself into the ocean
after being raped by a sea pirate.
And I am the pirate,
my heart not yet capable
of seeing and loving.
I am a member of the politburo,
with plenty of power in my hands,
And I am the man who has to pay
his “debt of blood” to my people
dying slowly in a forced-labor camp.
My joy is like Spring, so warm
it makes flowers bloom all over the Earth.
My pain is like a river of tears,
so vast it fills the four oceans.
Please call me by my true names,
so I can hear all my cries and laughs at
once,
so I can see that my joy and pain are one.
Please call me by my true names,
so I can wake up,
and the door of my heart
could be left open,
the door of compassion.


—Thich Nhat Hanh, Buddhist
This poem was written in 1978, during the time of
helping the boat people. It was first read at a retreat
in Kosmos Center in Amsterdam, Holland, organized
by Niko Tideman. Daniel Berrigan was there.

 

[Sky Dancer]

Not to hurt our humble brethren (the animals)
Is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not enough.
We have a higher mission:
To be of service to them whenever they require it.




St Francis of Assisi

 

[Sky Dancer]

The Divine Mother

Hear me child, and know Me for who I am.

I have been with you since you were born, and I will stay with you until you return to Me at the final dusk.

I am the passionate and seductive lover who inspires the poet to dream.

I am the One who calls to you at the end of your journey. After the day is done, My children find their blessed rest in my embrace.

I am the womb from which all things are born.

I am the shadowy, still tomb; all things must come to Me and bare their breasts to die and be reborn to the Whole.

I am the Sorceress that will not be ruled, the Weaver of Time, the Teacher of Mysteries. I snip the threads that bring my children home to me. I slit the throats of the cruel and drink the blood of the heartless.

Swallow your fear and come to me, and you will discover true beauty, strength, and courage.

I am the fury which rips the flesh from injustice.

I am the glowing forge that transforms your inner demons into tools of power. Open yourself to my embrace and overcome.

I am the glinting sword that protects you from harm.

I am the crucible in which all the aspects of yourself merge together in a rainbow of union.

I am the velvet depths of the night sky, the swirling mists of midnight, shrouded in mystery.

I am the chrysalis in which you will face that which terrifies you and from which you will blossom forth, vibrant and renewed. Seek me at the crossroads, and you shall be transformed, for once you look upon my face, there is no return.

I am the fire that kisses the shackles away. I am the cauldron in which all opposites grow to know each other in Truth. I am the web which connects all things.

I am the Healer of all wounds, the Warrior who rights all wrongs in their Time.

I make the weak strong. I make the arrogant humble. I raise up the oppressed and empower the disenfranchised. I am Justice tempered with Mercy.

Most importantly, child, I am you. I am part of you, and I am within you. Seek me within and without, and you will be strong. Know me. Venture into the dark so that you may awaken to Balance, Illumination, and Wholeness. Take my Love with you everywhere and find the Power within to be who you wish.

- Source unknown

 

[Oddball]

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

 

[Sky Dancer]

Let me be a feather on the breath of God....

Hildegard of Bingen

 

[Sky Dancer]

Sometime go outside and sit,
In the evening at sunset,
When there’s a slight breeze that touches your body,
And makes the leaves and the trees move gently.
You’re not trying to do anything, really.
You’re simply allowing yourself to be,
Very open from deep within,
Without holding onto anything whatsoever.
Don’t bring something back from the past, from a memory.
Don’t plan that something should happen.
Don’t hold onto anything in the present.
Nothing you perceive needs to be nailed down.
Simply let experience take place, very freely,
So that your empty, open heart
Is suffused with the tenderness of true compassion.


Tsoknyi Rinpoche, Tibetan Buddhist

 

[Sky Dancer]

Don’t change: Desire to change is the enemy of love.
Don’t change yourselves: Love yourselves as you are.
Don’t change others: Love all others as they are.
Don’t change the world: It is in God’s hands and he knows.
And if you do that change will occur


Anthony DeMello, Jesuit

 

[Sky Dancer]

I thought the earth remembered me, she
took me back so tenderly, arranging
her dark skirts, her pockets
full of lichens and seeds. I slept
as never before, a stone
on the riverbed, nothing
between me and the white fire of the stars
but my thoughts, and they floated
light as moths among the branches
of the perfect trees. All night
I heard the small kingdoms breathing
around me, the insects, and the birds
who do their work in the darkness. All night
I rose and fell, as if in water, grappling
with a luminous doom. By morning
I had vanished at least a dozen times
into something better.



- Mary Oliver. lesbian, christian

 

[Sky Dancer]

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don't go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don't go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don't go back to sleep.

Rumi, Sufi Mystic

 

[Sky Dancer]

Are you looking for me?

Are you looking for me? I am in the next seat.
My shoulder is against yours.
you will not find me in the stupas, not in Indian shrine
rooms, nor in synagogues, nor in cathedrals:
not in masses, nor kirtans, not in legs winding
around your own neck, nor in eating nothing but
vegetables.

When you really look for me, you will see me
instantly --
you will find me in the tiniest house of time.

Kabir says: Student, tell me, what is God?
He is the breath inside the breath.

Kabir, Islam

 

[Sky Dancer]

Wordly fools search for exotic masters.
not realizing that their own mind is the master.

Bodhidharma, Buddhist

 

[Midnight Marauder]

I had an old cat named Roy
Roy was a good ol' boy
He used to go hunting, down by the lake
Catch him a nice fresh garter snake
Bring him on back and then sit in the grass
Lookin like he had him a green mustache
Yeah Roy was a good ol' Boy.
Till the dogs got him.

 

[Sky Dancer]

All the true vows
are secret vows
the ones we speak out loud
are the ones we break.

There is only one life
you can call your own
and a thousand others
you can call by any name you want.

Hold to the truth you make
every day with your own body,
don't turn your face away.

Hold to your own truth
at the center of the image
you were born with.

Those who do not understand
their destiny will never understand
the friends they have made
nor the work they have chosen

nor the one life that waits
beyond all the others.

By the lake in the wood
in the shadows
you can
whisper that truth
to the quiet reflection
you see in the water.

Whatever you hear from
the water, remember,

it wants you to carry
the sound of its truth on your lips.

Remember,
in this place
no one can hear you

and out of the silence
you can make a promise
it will kill you to break,

that way you'll find
what is real and what is not.

I know what I am saying.
Time almost forsook me
and I looked again.

Seeing my reflection
I broke a promise
and spoke
for the first time
after all these years

in my own voice,

before it was too late
to turn my face again.


"All the True Vows" from The House of Belonging by David Whyte. �Copyright © 1997, 2004 by David Whyte. �Used by permission of the author and Many Rivers Press (David Whyte Many Rivers Home) �All rights reserved.

 

[Sky Dancer]

A thousand times my Guru I asked:
How shall the Nameless be defined?
I asked and asked but all in vain.
The Nameless Unknown, it seems to me,
Is the source of the something that we see.



Lalla, Sufi