Love wants to reach out and manhandle us,
Break all our teacup talk of God.
If you had the courage and could give the Beloved His choice,
Some nights, he would just drag you around the room, by your hair,
Ripping from your grip all those toys in the world that bring you no joy.
Love sometimes gets tired of speaking sweetly
And wants to rip to shreds all your erroneous notions of truth
that make you fight within yourself, dear one, and with others,
Causing the world to weep on too many fine days.
God wants to manhandle us,
Lock us inside of a tiny room and practice his dropkick.
The Beloved sometimes wants to do us a great favor:
Hold us upside down and shake all the nonsense out.
But when we hear he is in such a ‘playful drunken mood’
Most everyone I know packs their bags,
And hightails it out of town.”
(From “The Gift,” ~Hafiz~Translated by Daniel Ladinsky)

(20)The Trumpet's voice
hath command,
"Trust and
surrender
to me"~
pushed underwater
by an invisible hand
breathing in air divinely.

Memories have flooded back,
time the illusion crumbles,
while nature's truth
to thee I stack
my faith and heart
which fumbles,
grasping and gasping
for more~
each changing each
from before.
~Shivakti 1989

(13)"This power, this force,
it flows like a river,
Surrender and
flow to the Sea" . . .
Hey Jah-goo-bee,
Mama Ha-ee-nah,
The forest she grows in me!
To know how to die right
Is to know how to live-
To let lie the old ego,
Mow weeds and forgive-
For death is my friend
Whom I know so well:
It need not be the end
Nor a place to long dwell.

Aah, to die profane-
Re-born in the new,
A skill & an art
known well by the few
Whom cherish this doorway
& honor the Queen,
The vine of the Forest-
thine medicine seen
Through eyes divine
Visions of Infinite glory,
heaven not limited
by words of a story . . .

Fear not the scythe
of Saturn-Chronos
whom prunes
The chaff
from the wheat
& the noise
from the tunes.
Another step
up the pyramid
death shall bring
freedom from
thought forms
& oppression to fling.
Destroy what is old,
let creation take form,
be sincere & be bold,
for we all must be torn
From the veils of illusion,
decay and deceit.
Let go of confusion,
dismay and defeat.
Rise up to the light,
raise your head
from the ground . . .
'Tis a beautiful flight,
Magnificence Unbound!'
~Shivakti 2005