Composition

Lyrics

FIX!!!!!!!!!!!
A WATER WHEEL TURNS
Inside water, a water wheel turns.
The star circulates with the moon.
We live in the night ocean wondering,
What are these lights?
**************************
WATER FROM YOUR SPRING
What was in that candle’s light
that opened and consumed me so quickly?

Come back, my friend! The form of our love
is not a created form.

Nothing can help me but that beauty.
There was a dawn I remember

when my soul heard something
from your soul. I drank water

from your spring and felt the current take me.

Barks, Coleman (2010). The Essential Rumi - reissue: New Expanded Edition (Kindle Locations 1935-1940). Harper Collins, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

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THE SWEET COLD WATER
We are the mirror as well as the face in it.
We are tasting the taste this minute of eternity.
We are pain and what cures pain, both.
We are the sweet cold water and the jar that pours.

Barks, Coleman (2010). The Essential Rumi - reissue: New Expanded Edition (p. 106). Harper Collins, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

**************************
AS LAKEWATER RISES INTO MIST
The singer sings about love, until
the Friend appears in the doorway.

Kitchen smoke drifts up into clouds
and becomes a thousand-year-old wine.

I am here, not reckoning the credit
accumulated or future speculation.

I am the vineyard and the barrel
where the grapes are crushed, the

entire operation, whose transaction
pours this glass of wine, this moment,

this poem. A man stumbles by with
baggage, papers from the house, regret

and wishing, not knowing which to
tend to. Neither. After you see

the face, concerns change, as
lakewater rises into the mist.
**************************
**************************
ENTERING THE SHELL
Love is alive, and someone borne
along by it is more alive than lions

roaring or men in their fierce courage.
Bandits ambush others on the road.

They get wealth, but they stay in one
place. Lovers keep moving, never

the same, not for a second! What
makes others grieve, they enjoy!

When they look angry, don’t believe
their faces. It’s spring lightning,

a joke before the rain. They chew
thorns thoughtfully along with pasture

grass. Gazelle and lioness, having
dinner. Love is invisible except

here, in us. Sometimes I praise love;
sometimes love praises me. Love,

a little shell somewhere on the ocean
floor, opens its mouth. You and I

and we, those imaginary beings, enter
that shell as a single sip of seawater.

**************************

FLUTES FOR DANCING
It’s lucky to hear the flutes for dancing
coming down the road. The ground is glowing.
The table set in the yard.

We will drink all this wine tonight
because it’s Spring. It is.
It’s a growing sea. We’re clouds
over the sea,
or flecks of matter
in the ocean when the ocean seems lit from within.
I know I’m drunk when I start this ocean talk.

Would you like to see the moon split
in half with one throw?

When the soul first put on the body's shirt,
the ocean lifted up all its gifts.

When love first tasted the lips
of being human, it started singing.
********

A TURNING
Walk to the well.
Turn as he earth and the moon turn,
circling what they love.
Whatever circles comes from the center.
**************************

I ASK ONE MORE THING
Today pour the full cup.
Slap the wheel already spinning so frantically.

This wine is invisible, yes, but the effect is not.

I ask one more thing
from the love that has given us
this dear time talking together.

Lift the veil from the face of the king.
Why open a rosewater shop and keep the garden secret?

You have set the river flowing.
Now toss the ducklings in.

We are the first double-leaf sprout,
two inches out of the ground.
We need rain, or we may not grow more than this.

Cynics on all sides say,
You look for what does not exist,
and saying that, they steal laughter from the fool,
and music from the lute player.

I want these words to stop.
Calm the chattering mind, my soul.
No more camel’s milk.
I want silent water to drink
And the majesty of a clear waking.
**************************

SPECIAL PLATES
Notice how each particle moves.
Notice how everyone has just arrived here from a journey.
Notice how each wants a different food.
Notice how the stars vanish as the sun comes up, and how all streams stream toward the ocean.
Look at the chefs preparing special plates for everyone, according to what they need.
Look at this cup that can hold the ocean.
Look at those who see the face.
Look through Shams’ eyes into the water that is entirely jewels.

Barks, Coleman (2010). The Essential Rumi - reissue: New Expanded Edition (p. 7). Harper Collins, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

SPECIAL PLATES Notice how each particle moves. Notice how everyone has just arrived here from a journey. Notice how each wants a different food. Notice how the stars vanish as the sun comes up, and how all streams stream toward the ocean. Look at the chefs preparing special plates for everyone, according to what they need. Look at this cup that can hold the ocean. Look at those who see the face. Look through Shams’ eyes into the water that is entirely jewels.
Barks, Coleman (2010). The Essential Rumi - reissue: New Expanded Edition (p. 7). Harper Collins, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

THE GRASSES The same wind that uproots trees makes the grasses shine. The lordly wind loves the weakness and the lowness of grasses. Never brag of being strong. The axe doesn’t worry how thick the branches are. It cuts them to pieces. But not the leaves. It leaves the leaves alone. A flame doesn’t consider the size of the woodpile. A butcher doesn’t run from a flock of sheep. What is form in the presence of reality? Very feeble. Reality keeps the sky turned over like a cup above us, revolving. Who turns the sky wheel? The universal intelligence.
And the motion of the body comes

from the spirit like a waterwheel that’s held in a stream. The inhaling-exhaling is from spirit, now angry, now peaceful. Wind destroys, and wind protects. There is no reality but God, says the completely surrendered sheikh, who is an ocean for all beings. The levels of creation are straws in that ocean. The movement of the straws comes from an agitation in the water. When the ocean wants the straws calm, it sends them close to shore. When it wants them back in the deep surge, it does with them as the wind does with the grasses. This never ends.
Barks, Coleman (2010). The Essential Rumi - reissue: New Expanded Edition (pp. 43-44). Harper Collins, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

THE GIFT OF WATER Someone who doesn’t know the Tigris River exists brings the caliph who lives near the river a jar of fresh water. The caliph accepts, thanks him, and gives in return a jar filled with gold coins. “Since this man has come through the desert, he should return by water.” Taken out by another door,
the man steps into a waiting boat and sees the wide freshwater of the Tigris. He bows his head, “What wonderful kindness that he took my gift.” Every object and being in the universe is a jar overfilled with wisdom and beauty, a drop of the Tigris that cannot be contained by any skin. Every jarful spills and makes the earth more shining, as though covered in satin. If the man had seen even a tributary of the great river, he wouldn’t have brought the innocence of his gift. Those that stay and live by the Tigris grow so ecstatic that they throw rocks at the jugs, and the jugs become perfect! They shatter. The pieces dance, and water … Do you see? Neither jar, nor water, nor stone, nothing. You knock at the door of reality, shake your thought-wings, loosen your shoulders, and open.
Barks, Coleman (2010). The Essential Rumi - reissue: New Expanded Edition (pp. 199-200). Harper Collins, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

Barks, Coleman (2010). The Essential Rumi - reissue: New Expanded Edition (p. 199). Harper Collins, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

Barks, Coleman (2010). The Essential Rumi - reissue: New Expanded Edition (p. 43). Harper Collins, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

Rivers,

The Owner of Rivers is the Mother of the Children of Fishes.

The sound of the moving spring possesses Yemaya.

We swim in a circle always to arrive home,
We swim in a circle always to arrive home.

For OSHUN:

Give birth to the world, River.
Give birth to the world, Running Stream.

My Mother's house is the River,
My Mother's house is the house of Tradition.

The Owner of Water pushes into the body to arrive,
The Owner of Water pushes into the body to crown a child.

Spring that makes blessings,
Resting place of sacred water.

Little Spring, Mother of Mystery,
Little Spring, Mother of First Rank.

KH

1In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
5And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
6And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
7And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
8And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
9And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
10And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
11And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
12And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
13And the evening and the morning were the third day.
14And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
15And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
16And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
17And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
18And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
19And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
20And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
21And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
22And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
23And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
24And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
25And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
26And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
29And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
30And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
31And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Rumi/Barks

Moving Water – Rumi/Barks

When you do things from your soul, you feel a river
moving in you, a joy.

When actions come from another section, the feeling
disappears. Don't let

others lead you. They may be blind or, worse, vultures.
Reach for the rope

of God. And what is that? Putting aside self-will.
Because of willfulness

people sit in jail, the trapped bird's wings are tied,
fish sizzle in the skillet.

The anger of police is willfulness. You've seen a magistrate
inflict visible punishment. Now

see the invisible. If you could leave your selfishness, you
would see how you've

been torturing your soul. We are born and live inside black water in a well.

How could we know what an open field of sunlight is? Don't
insist on going where

you think you want to go. Ask the way to the spring. Your
living pieces will form

a harmony. There is a moving palace that floats in the air
with balconies and clear

water flowing through, infinity everywhere, yet contained
under a single tent.

As Lakewater Rises in Mist
The singer sings about love, until
the Friend appears in the doorway.
Kitchen smoke drifts up into clouds
and becomes a thousand-year-old wine.
I am here, not reckoning the credit
accumulated or future speculation.
I am the vineyard and the barrel
where the grapes are crushed, the
entire operation, whose transaction
pours this glass of wine, this moment,
thia poem. A man stumbles by with
baggage, papers from the house, regret
and wishing, not knowing which to
tend to. Neither. After you see
the face, concerns change, as
lakewater rises into mist.
 Ghazal (Ode) 2394
Version by Coleman Barks, with Nevit Ergin 
"The Glance"
Viking-Penguin, 1999

WATER FROM YOUR SPRING What was in that candle’s light that opened and consumed me so quickly? Come back, my friend! The form of our love is not a created form. Nothing can help me but that beauty. There was a dawn I remember when my soul heard something from your soul. I drank water from your spring and felt the current take me.
Barks, Coleman (2010). The Essential Rumi - reissue: New Expanded Edition (Kindle Locations 1935-1940). Harper Collins, Inc.. Kindle Edition.