A Community of Spirit

Another zesty poem by RUMI (translated by Coleman Barks):


There is a community of the spirit.
Join it, and feel the delight
of walking in the noisy street
and being the noise.

Drink all your passion,
and be a disgrace.

Close both eyes
to see with the other eye.

Open your hands,
if you want to be held.

Sit down in the circle.

Quit acting like a wolf, and feel
the shepherd's love filling you.

At night, your beloved wanders.
Don't accept consolations.

Close your mouth against food.
Taste the lover's mouth in yours.

You moan, "She left me." "He left me."
Twenty more will come.

Be empty of worrying.
Think of who created thought!

Why do you stay in prison
when the door is so wide open?

Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking.
Live in silence.

Flow down and down in always
widening rings of being.


A community of spirit was dynamically demonstrated at SUNY Purchase this past Monday when an impromptu anti-gay protest occurred. Of course, being a heavily queer/queer friendly campus the demonstration quickly turned into an anti-anti-gay protest. For more on this event (photos inclusive) see Milo's blog at http://funtimeusa.wordpress.com/

Being Human//Guest House

Hmmm, where oh where to begin, where to blogin? This being my first active encounter with the blogosphere I wanted to open up with one of my favorite poems:


The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

~ Jelaluddin Rumi,
translated by Coleman Barks


Oh Rumi. I could Ruminate endlessly. Filled with delicious pearls of wisdom. I find this poem so refreshing in any mood or state of mind. The Guest House constantly reminds me of the transient nature of life and to treasure it's colourful fabric and flavors gratefully and gracefully. This grateful business is quite a new thing for me. My default thinking-mode over the past two decades has been rather toxic and convoluted. More recently in my life, I have been learning to think outside my pessimistic fog and to begin to accept and allow things to be just as they are. Ahh yes, the delicate beauty of riding whatever waves come our way with courage and resilience. Anyhow, I have this poem tattooed in the walls of my existence as well as the physical walls of my Rumi in the Olde.

I hope you all stay warm on this brutal, wintry night!