A friend kindly sent me a copy of Love Poems from God, 12 Sacred Voices from the East and West.
Translated by David Ladinsky.
He draws from the poems of Rabia, St. Francis of Assisi, Rumi, Meister Eckhart, St. Thomas Aquinas, Hafiz, St. Catherine of Siena, Kabir, Mira, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross and Tukaram. I have selected some lovely lines from this collection of poems.
Maybe if I brought the moon a little closer, lovers would argue less
These just aren’t words you are reading. if you churn them, you could have some good cream.
If you put your hands on this oar with me, they will never harm another, and they will come to find they hold everything you want.
Love so needs to love that it will endure almost anything, even abuse
A squirrel holds an acorn in its praying hands, offering thanks
A hand in my soul can reach out and touch Jerusalem as my other hand tastes the beauty of the Rhine.
The passion in the earth’s whisper grew so loud that I woke.
I am a hole in a flutethat the Christ’s breath moves through –listen to this music
There are so many positions of love: each curve on a branch.
The thousand ways your eyes can hold us the infinite shapes each mind can draw
Power is safest in a poet’s hands
The Beautiful One whom I adore has pitched His royal tent inside of you
Live without thoughts of dying for dying is not a truth.
A favourite melody will always rise to the top of oil
There is a dew on these poems in the morning and at night a cool breeze might rise from them.
I like talking to you like this. Have you moved a step closer?
A limb just moved before me, the beauty of this world is causing me to weep
The Divine is really speechless. It is too in love to chat.
A good poem is like finding a hole in a palace wall -never know what you might see.
Published by Penguin. 2002.