Sunday, April 17, 2011

Rumi and Agave: "Safe from Virtue and Vice"



















A huge agave plant sends up a towering tree-like stem, and flower in which a bird perches. The Persian poet, Rumi, sends us this poem:

A Just-Finishing Candle

A candle is made to become entirely flame.
In that annihilating moment
it has no shadow.

It is nothing but a tongue of light
describing a refuge.

Look at this
just-finishing candle stub
as someone who is finally safe
from virtue and vice,

the pride and the shame
we claim from those.

5 comments:

  1. Oh, Mim, thank you for the wonderful Rumi poem. Sigh. He got it just right, didn't he? And the photo is lovely. We miss you. Come home soon.

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  2. Thanks for this, Mim - and thank you, Rumi. I did not see this before

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  3. Isn't it a marvelous poem . . .

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  4. The last two lines are indeed incredible.

    Please have a good Tuesday.

    daily athens

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  5. I like to look with Rumi . . .
    Be well, Robert.

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