Pure Light – Poem

I am totally lost in the folds of Love,

totally free of worry and care.

I have passed beyond the four qualities.

My heart has torn away the veil of pretense.

There was a time I circled with the nine spheres,

rolling with the stars across the sky.
There was a time I stayed by his side—

I lived in his world
and he gave me everything.

With the best of intentions
I became a prisoner in this form.
How else did I get here?
What crime did I commit?
But I’d rather be in a prison with my Friend

than in a rosegarden all alone.

I came to this world
To have a sight of Joseph’s purity.
Like a baby born of its mother’s womb,

I was brought here with blood and tears.

People think they are born only once

But they have been here so many times.

In the cloak of this ragged body
I have walked countless paths.

How many times I have worn out this cloak!

With ascetics in the desert

I watched night turn into day.

With pagans in the temple
I slept at the foot of idols.

I’ve been a charlatan and a king;
I’ve been a healer, and fraught with disease.

I’ve been on my death-bed 

so many times. . . .

Floating up like the clouds

Pouring down like the rain.

As a dervish I sought the dust of annihilation

but it never touched my robe.

So I gathered armfuls of roses
in this faded garden of existence.

I am not of wind nor fire

nor of the stormy seas.

I am not formed out of painted clay.

I am not even Shams-e Tabriz—
       I am the essence of laughter,

               I am pure light.

Look again if you see me—

It’s not me you have seen!

~ Rumi

(In the arms of the beloved)

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