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POETRY

Salice's Poems - Going back home
Course based Poems by Minette Quick

Truth is within ourselves, it takes no rise
From outward things, whate'er you may believe.
There is an inner centre in us all
Where truth abides in fullness; and around
Wall upon wall the gross flesh hems it in
That perfect, clear perception which is Truth.
A baffling and perverting carnal mesh
Binds all and makes all error, but to know
Rather consists in finding out a way
For the imprisoned splendour to escape
Than in achieving entry for a light
Supposed to be without.
~Robert Browning

Look not in the world for bliss and fortune,
since thou wilt not find them;
Seek bliss in both worlds by serving Him,
Put away the tale of Love that travellers tell;
Do thou serve God with all thy might.
~Rumi (trans F Hadland Davis)
O Offspring of Dust!
Be not content with the ease of a passing day, and
deprive not thyself of everlasting rest. Barter not
the garden of eternal delight for the dust-heap of a
mortal world. Up from thy prison ascend unto the
glorious meads above, and from thy mortal cage wing
thy flight unto the paradise of the Placeless.
~Baha'u'llah

Love lit a fire in my chest, and anything that wasn't love left...
What use is your life
If your bones are not used
as wood for His fire?...
The wine I drink is the fire of love
And God Himself pours it into my mouth!
~Rumi - fire quotes

Releasing my Dream
I would let this world go,
Gently disappearing from my mind's grasp
Opening to something else that I do not yet quite know.
But you are there to lead the way
And I would follow.
For what truly is there but the Home you represent.

I would let this world go
My dreams of time ongoing
With endless goals yet to be reached.
The glitter of gold, the deep glow of rubies
The flash of diamonds in the sun.
All this and more would I release
To walk with you my Lord.

For you are the Light by which I will find my way,
No more to stumble endlessly
In my dreams of darkness.
Let go, let go, the angel cries as she beckons me onwards
Pointing the way with arms outstretched.
And so my Lord, I come to you at last.
~Salice Dawson

Close your eyes and you will see clearly.
Cease to listen and you will hear the truth.
~Taoist poem

I tried to keep quietly repeating,
No strength but Yours, but I couldn't.
I had to clap and sing.

I used to be respectable and chaste and stable,
but who can stand in this strong wind
and remember those things?

A mountain keeps an echo deep inside itself.
That's how I hold your Voice.

I am scrap wood thrown in your Fire,
and quickly reduced to smoke.

I saw You and became empty. This Emptiness,
more beautiful than existence, it obliterates existence;
and yet when It comes, existence thrives and creates more existence!

The sky is blue. The world is a blind man squatting on the road.
But whoever sees Your Emptiness
sees beyond blue and beyond the blind man.

A great soul hides like Muhammed, or Jesus,
moving through a crowd in a city where no one knows Him.

To praise is to praise how one surrenders to the Emptiness.
To praise the sun is to praise your own eyes.
Praise, the Ocean. What we say, a little ship.

So the sea-journey goes on, and who know where!
Just to be held by the Ocean is the best luck we could have.
It's a total waking up!

Why should we grieve that we've been sleeping?
It doesn't matter how long we've been unconscious.

We're groggy, but let the guilt go.
Feel the motions of tenderness around you, the buoyancy.
~Coleman Barks, "The Essential Rumi," Castle Books, 1997

That thou mayest have pleasure in everything
seek pleasure in nothing
That thou mayest know everything
seek to know nothing
That thou mayest possess all things
seek to possess nothing
That thou mayest be everything
seek to be nothing.
~St. John of the Cross

The Divine Union
Avoid entangled thoughts, that you may see
the explanation of Paradise.
Refrain from speaking, that you may win speech hereafter.
Abandon life and the world, that you may
behold the Life of the world.
~Rumi (trans F Hadland Davis)

The quality of mercy is not strained, it droppeth
as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blessed
it blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
~William Shakespeare

Ten Thousand Idiots
It is always a danger
To the aspirant
On the
Path

When one begins
To believe and
Act

As if the ten thousand idiots
Who so long ruled
And lived
Inside

Have all packed their bags
And skipped town
Or
Died.
~Daniel Ladinsky

In Just a Little while
My mind wanders endlessly
Drifting across different worlds
So rapidly my Lord, you cannot accompany me.
Can it really be true that this is what I prefer?
To keep you so effectively barred from my door?

Oh yes, I would keep you away,
You who would disturb my peace and change my world.
You cannot enter here where all is dark and hopeless.
I will not let you
I will not let you.

And yet you tarry there near the door of my heart
So long has it been closed against you.
Do not enter here Lord, please do not enter
For I am so afraid.
But you will stay there will you not and wait for me?

Ah, you are so gentle, so accepting.
I will travel in peace now a little longer
And in a while, just a little while, I will return.
Surely then, I will be ready to open my door and let you enter.
Just a little while now, a very little while.
~Salice Dawson

Time to go Home
Late and starting to rain,
it's time to go home.
We've wandered long enough
in empty buildings.
I know it's tempting to stay
and meet those new people.
I know it's even more sensible
to spend the night here with them,
but I want to go home.

We've seen enough beautiful places
with signs on them saying
This is God's House.That's seeing the
grain like the ants do,
without the work of harvesting.
Let's leave grazing to cows and go
where we know what everyone really intends,
where we can walk around without clothes on.
~ Rumi

The Sound Of The Sea
The sea awoke at midnight from its sleep,
And round the pebbly beaches far and wide
I heard the first wave of the rising tide
Rush onward with uninterrupted sweep;
A voice out of the silence of the deep,
A sound mysteriously multiplied
As of a cataract from the mountain's side,
Or roar of winds upon a wooded steep.
So comes to us at times, from the unknown
And inaccessible solitudes of being,
The rushing of the sea-tides of the soul;
And inspirations, that we deem our own,
Are some divine foreshadowing and foreseeing
Of things beyond our reason or control.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Do you know a word that doesn't refer to something?
Have you ever picked and held a rose from R,O,S,E?
You say the NAME. Now try to find the reality it names.
Look at the moon in the sky, not the one in the lake.
If you want to be free of your obsession with words
and beautiful lettering, make one stroke down.
There's no self, no characteristics,
but a bright center where you have the knowledge
the Prophets have, without books or interpreter.
~Rumi

free and easy:
happiness is not to be found
through great effort and willpower
it is already present in open relaxation and letting go

don't strain
there's nothing to do or to undo
whatever momentarily and adventitiously arises in body-mind
has no real import at all
has very little reality at all
why identify with it and become attached to it,
passing judgement on it and on yourself and others?

far better simply
to just let the entire game happen on its own
springing up and falling back again like waves

without 'rectifying' or manipulating things
just noticing how everything vanishes
and then magically reappears, again and again and again
time without end

it's only our searching for happiness
that prevents us from seeing it
like a vivid rainbow one runs after but can never catch
or a dog chasing its own tail

though peace and happiness have no existence
as some actual place or thing
they are forever at hand -
one's constant companion at every instant

just don't be taken in by the apparent reality
of good and bad experiences
they're like today's passing weather
like rainbows in the sky

wanting to grasp the ungraspable
you exhaust yourself in vain
but as soon as you open up and relax the tight fist of
grasping
infinite space is right there - open, inviting, comfortable

use this spaciousness - this freedom and natural ease
don't look anywhere else

don't go off into the tangled jungle
searching for the elephant of great awakenedness
when he is already at home
quietly resting in front of your own hearth

there's nothing to do or to undo
nothing to force
nothing you have to want
nothing missing

emaho - how marvellous

everything just happens of itself
~Gen'dn Rinpoche

The spiritual heir of Muhammed is seated in front
of you, but where indeed is "front"? He is before
you, but where is the soul that thinks "before"?
If you fancy you have a "before" and "behind,"
you are tied to body and deprived of spirit.
"Below" and "above," "before" and "behind,"
are attributes of the body: the essence of the
bright spirit IS.
~Rumi

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