A Great Silence

from night’s silent well
shimmering moon greets the dawn
drowning in poems

Kim M. Russell, 2018

My response to Carpe Diem #1391 A Great Silence

We are exploring the beauty of Rumi’s mystical poetry and today Chèvrefeuille has given us the following poem for inspiration:

A Great Silence

I don’t get tired of you. Don’t grow weary
of being compassionate toward me!

 All this thirst-equipment
must surely be tired of me,
the water jar, the water-carrier.

 I have a thirsty fish in me
that can never find enough
of what it’s thirsty for!

 Show me the way to the Ocean!
Break these half-measures,
these small containers.

 All this fantasy
and grief.

 Let my house be drowned in the wave
that rose last night out of the courtyard
hidden in the centre of my chest.

 Joseph fell like the moon into my well.
The harvest I expected was washed away.
But no matter.

 A fire has risen above my tombstone hat.
I don’t want learning, or dignity,
or respectability.

 I want this music and this dawn
and the warmth of your cheek against mine.

 The grief-armies assemble,
but I’m not going with them.

 This is how it always is
when I finish a poem.

 A Great Silence overcomes me,
and I wonder why I ever thought
to use language.

 © Rumi