Rumi’s Secret

Day 13 of the month long challenge was to write a ghazal.   It’s a nice traditional Persian form that has lent itself to the English literary world.  I wrote a poem or two off topic and now am coming back to the challenge.  Frankly, I found myself not so impressed with any topic that seemed to associate itself with this form.  I had written one a few years back and that was fine.  This year, I had nothing.

Today, I visited the library with my two angelic princesses.  While there, I stumbled on some information about Rumi.  Maybe I’m ready to tackle this.  In any event, I have put this attempt off as long as I am going to do that.

Sanity Island - Courtship Dance of Vintage Swans

Rumi’s Secret Love
by Michael Romani

Love had stole his prayer beads replacing it with poetry
The same might be said of me; as a victim of Rumi’s secret love

Across from Umayyad Mosque, in a warren of crosshatched passageways
The cooing doves announce the day’s beginning; for Rumi’s secret love

Here, young Rumi was a student in this busy Arabic trading town
Legend to both poetic heroes and clowns; victims of Rumi’s secret Love

A Persian Walt Whitman universal in his swath of epic, storied intimacy
Touching on the sacred, bordering lunacy; Rumi’s secret love

Reverberating in my head like a singsong moment of flawless recitation
Words felt with impassioned love’s painful incantation; Rumi’s secret love

Phrased in passages sometimes stilted and dated, circular and not direct
Somehow, the lines leave us spellbound by their effect, Rumi’s secret love

Like Shakespeare, some secrets are shuttered and kept in obscurity
Deserted souk of shadowed passkey mystery; speaks of Rumi’s secret love

The nearness of the secret behind his fluted song keeps it so very far
Like wished on brilliance of a falling star; tells of Rumi’s secret love

In a silken road journey where an unknown wise friend keeps the sign
A special love and wisdom gleam like gems that shine; Rumi’s secret love

Secrets to be found – poetic and personal, practical and theological
Revealed and concealed in the passions and logical; Rumi’s secret love

Across a black and white marbled square, words share seductive pleasure
Every nuance, dappled like gleaming treasure; Rumi’s secret love

In a measure of compulsion, it is what it is  – and then what is it
Perfect perfection outside fields that do not fit; Rumi’s secret love

To speak well of others is to reach for and find a garden paradise
Semi-muddled, this has always seemed good advice; Rumi’s secret love

In discovering the details of a life story and filling out a relief
Profound pertinence of religion and similar belief; Rumi’s secret love

Lulled again to sleep by tinkling bells and Arabic love songs
Finding earthly paradise has taken man too long; Rumi’s secret love

(c) April 15, 2017 Michael Romani
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About alohapromisesforever

Writer, poet, musician, surfer, father of two princesses.
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