Ancient News – Inspiring Poems
Under each song title is the poem(s) that inspired the song.
1) I Come Into This World
I HAVE COME INTO THIS WORLD TO SEE THIS Hafiz/Ladinsky
I have come into this world to see this:
the sword drop from men’s hands
even at the height of their arc of anger
because we have finally realized
there is just one flesh to wound
and it is His – the Christ’s, our Beloved’s.
I have come into this world to see this:
all creatures holding hands
as we pass through this miraculous existence
we share on the way to even a greater being of soul,
a being of just ecstatic light,
forever entwined and at play with Him.
I have come into this world to hear this:
every song the earth has sung since it was conceived in
the Divine’s womb and began spinning from His wish,
every song by wing and fin and hoof,
every song by hill and tree and woman and child,
every song of stream and rock,
every song of tool and lyre and flute,
every song of gold and emerald and fire,
every song the heart should cry with magnificent dignity
to know itself as God:
for all other knowledge will leave us again
in want and aching –
only imbibing the glorious Sun will complete us.
I have come into this world to experience this:
Women and men so true to love
they would rather die before speaking an unkind word,
men so true their lives are His covenant -
the promise of hope.
I have come into this world to see this:
the sword drop from men’s hands
even at the height of their arc of rage
because we have finally realized there is just one flesh
we can wound and it is our own.
[Daniel Ladinsky: A Year With Hafiz, pp.358-359]
3) Take Us Down
JARS OF SPRINGWATER Rumi/Coleman Barks
Jars of springwater are not enough anymore.
Take Us down to the river.
The face of peace, the sun itself.
No more slippery cloudlike moon.
Give us one clear morning after another,
and the one whose work remains unfinished,
who is our work as we diminish,
idle, though occupied, empty, and open.
[Rumi: The Big Red Book, p. 16]
4) Love’s Tavern
Hafiz/Ladinsky
There are moments in moist love
when heaven is jealous of what we on earth can do.
[Daniel Ladinsky: A Year With Hafiz, Introduction]
5) I Heard God Laughing
LAUGHTER Hafiz/Ladinsky
What is laughter? What is laughter?
It is God waking up! O it is God waking up!
It is the sun its sweet little head out
From behind a cloud
You have been carrying too long,
Veiling your eyes and heart.
It is Light breaking ground for a great Structure
That is your Real body – called Truth
It is happiness applauding itself and then taking flight
To embrace everyone and everything in this world.
Laughter is the polestar
Held in the sky by our Beloved,
Who eternally says,
“Yes, dear ones, come this way,
Come this way toward Me and Love!
Come with your tender mouths moving
And your beautiful tongues conducting songs
And with your movements – your magic movements
Of hands and feet and glands and cells – Dancing!
Know that to God’s Eye,
All movement is a Wonderous Language,
And Music – such exquisite, wild Music!”
O what is laughter, Hafiz?
What is this precious love and laughter
Budding in our hearts?
It is the glorious sound
Of a soul waking up!
[Daniel Ladinsky : I Heard God Laughing, p.65]
8) Love Comes With A Knife
THE SILENT ARTICULATION OF A FACE Rumi/Coleman Barks
Love comes with a knife, not some shy question,
and not with fears for its reputation.
I say these things disinterestedly. Accept them in kind.
Love is a madman, working his wild schemes,
tearing off his clothes,
running through the mountains, drinking poison,
and now quietly choosing annihilation.
A tiny spider tries to wrap an enormous wasp.
Think of the spiderweb woven across the cave where Muhammad slept.
There are love stories, and there is obliteration into love.
You've been walking the ocean's edge,
holding up your robes to keep them dry.
You must dive naked under and deeper under,
a thousand times deeper! Love flows down.
The ground submits to the sky and suffers what comes.
Tell me, is the earth worse for giving in like that?
Don't put blankets over the drum!
Open completely.
Let your spirit listen to the green dome's passionate murmur.
Let the cords of your robe be untied.
Shiver in this new love beyond all above and below.
The sun rises, but which way does night go?
I have no more words.
Let soul speak with the silent articulation of a face.
[Rumi: The Big Red Book, p. 20]
10) The Friend’s Delight
A DIVINE INVITATION Hafiz/Ladinsky
You have been invited to meet The Friend.
No one can resist a Divine Invitation.
That narrows down all our choices to just two:
We can come to God Dressed for Dancing, or
Be carried on a stretcher To God’s Ward.
[Daniel Ladinsky: I Heard God Laughing, p.2]
YOU DON’T HAVE TO ACT CRAZY ANYMORE
You don’t have to act crazy anymore –
We all know you were good at that.
Now retire, my dear,
From all that hard work you do
Of bringing pain to your sweet eyes and heart.
Look in a clear mountain mirror –
See the beautiful Ancient Warrior
And the Divine elements you always carry inside
That infused this Universe with sacred Life so long ago
And join you Eternally with all Existence – with God!
[Daniel Ladinsky :I Heard God Laughing, p.3]
WE SHOULD TALK ABOUT THIS PROBLEM Hafiz/Ladinsky
There is a Beautiful Creature Living in a hole you have dug.
So at night I set fruit and grains and little pots of wine and milk
Beside your soft earthen mounds,
And I often sing. But still, my dear, You do not come out.
I have fallen in love with Someone Who hides inside you.
We should talk about this problem –
Otherwise, I will never leave you alone.
[Daniel Ladinsky: I Heard God Laughing, p.4]
THE GOD WHO ONLY KNOWS FOUR WORDS Hafiz/Ladinsky
Every Child Has known God.
Not the God of names, Not the God of don’ts
Not the God who ever does Anything weird,
But the God who only knows four words
And keeps repeating them, saying:
“Come dance with Me.”
Come Dance.
[Daniel Ladinsky: The Gift, p.270]