If my words are not saying what you would say,
slap my face.
Discipline me as a loving mother does a babbling child
caught up in nonsense.
A thirsty man runs into the sea,
and the sea holds a sword to his throat.
A lily looks at a bank of roses and wilts and says nothing.
I am a tambourine.
Don’t put me aside till the fast dancing starts.
Play me some all along.
Help me with these little sounds.
Joseph is most beautiful when he’s completely naked,
but his shirt gives you an idea,
as the body lets you glimpse the glitter on the water of the soul.
Even if the corpse washer binds my jaw shut,
you’ll still hear this song coming out of my dead-silence.
I love this poem. I’ve been reading it since I was a teenager. I first read it in Like This, which is versions of Rumi poems by Coleman Barks. It’s part of me now!