diff --git a/rumi.txt b/rumi.txt
index 8ec67a9..ed714fd 100644
--- a/rumi.txt
+++ b/rumi.txt
@@ -6,9 +6,8 @@ wash your eyes.
 When you get bad thoughts
 wash your mind.
 and
-Keep your feet muddy.7
+Keep your feet muddy.
 —Nanao Sakaki
-2
 Excuse my wandering.
 How can one be orderly with this?
 It’s like counting leaves in a garden,
@@ -24,10 +23,9 @@ Second, whatever I was looking for
 was always you.
 Third, why did I ever learn to count to three?
 Fourth, my cornfield is burning!
-Fifth, this finger stands for Rabia,8
+Fifth, this finger stands for Rabia, 
 and this is for someone else.
 Is there a difference?
-3
 Are these words or tears?
 Is weeping speech?
 What shall I do, my love?
@@ -37,7 +35,7 @@ moaning in the spreading union
 of lover and beloved.
 This is the true religion. All others
 are thrown-away bandages beside it.
-This is the sema9 of slavery and mastery
+This is the sema  of slavery and mastery
 dancing together. This is not-being.
 I know these dancers.
 Day and night I sing their songs
@@ -49,9 +47,8 @@ God has put into the form of hashish a power
 to deliver the taster from self-consciousness.
 God has made sleep
 so that it erases every thought.
-4
 God made Majnun love Layla so much
-that just her dog would cause confusion in him.10
+that just her dog would cause confusion in him.  
 There are thousands of wines
 that can take over our minds.
 Don’t think all ecstasies
@@ -71,7 +68,6 @@ or some urgency about “what’s needed.”
 Drink the wine that moves you
 as a camel moves when it’s been untied,
 and is just ambling about.
-5
 C O O K E D H E A D S
 I have been given a glass
 that has the fountain of the sun inside,
@@ -81,7 +77,7 @@ My soul-parrot gets excited with sweetness.
 Wingbeats, a door opening in the sun.
 You’ve seen the market where they sell
 cooked heads: that’s what this is,
-a way of seeing beyond inner and outer.11
+a way of seeing beyond inner and outer.  
 A donkey wanders the sign of Taurus.
 Heroes do not stay lined up in ranks
 for very long. I set out for Tabriz,
@@ -91,7 +87,6 @@ loves from. That’s the reality,
 not what they say.
 F R O M
 Hypocrites
-6
 give attention to form, the right
 and wrong ways of professing belief.
 Grow instead in universal light.
@@ -113,7 +108,6 @@ You dance inside my chest
 where no one sees you,
 but sometimes I do,
 and that sight becomes this art.
-7
 Drumsound rises on the air,
 its throb, my heart.
 A voice inside the beat says,
@@ -134,7 +128,7 @@ no dogma and no heresy.
 The miracle of Jesus is himself, not what he said
 or did about the future. Forget the future.
 I’d worship someone who could do that.
-8
+ 
 On the way you may want to look back, or not.
 But if you can say, There’s nothing ahead,
 there will be nothing there.
@@ -146,14 +140,14 @@ you don’t belong with us.
 When one of us gets lost,
 is not here, he must be inside us. There’s no
 place like that anywhere in the world.
-9
-2. Sohbet: Who You Talking To?
+ 
+ . Sohbet: Who You Talking To?
 For Rumi the appearance of formal beauty comes as a natu-
 ral response to being spoken to. The rose opens because it
 has heard something. The cypress grows strong and
 straight because a love-secret is being whispered. Elegance
 in language arrives in response. Before creation there was a
-question, “Am I not your lord?”12 The simultaneous YES!
+question, “Am I not your lord?” The simultaneous YES!
 that came is why we are here at all in the midst of three
 hundred billion galaxies.
 I have a friend who, when she wants to know who I am
@@ -168,7 +162,7 @@ solves into everything: what anybody says, whatever hap-
 pens.
 Emily Dickinson says, I dwell in possibility, a fairer house
 than prose. That region where her poetry grew is sohbet.
-10
+  
 I dwell in possibility,
 A fairer house than prose,
 More numerous of windows,
@@ -180,7 +174,7 @@ The gambrels of the sky.
 Of visitors, the fairest.
 For occupation, this:
 The spreading wide my narrow hands
-To gather paradise.13
+To gather paradise.  
 She’s describing the opening air around Rumi and
 Shams, their retreat house full of sky and breath, and
 laughter with the fairest visitors. Love with no object, conver-
@@ -196,14 +190,14 @@ say, these lines from Rexroth’s late afternoon love poem,
 “When We with Sappho”:
 Stop reading. Lean back. Give me your mouth.
 Your grace is as beautiful as a sleep.
-11
+
 You move against me like a wave
 That moves in sleep.
 Your body spreads across my brain
 Like a bird-filled summer;
 Not like a body, not like a separate thing,
 But like a nimbus that hovers
-Over every other thing in all the world.14
+Over every other thing in all the world.
 Sufis say there are three ways of being with the mys-
 tery: prayer, then a step up from that, meditation, and a
 step up from that, conversation, the mystical exchange
@@ -224,7 +218,7 @@ will make camp in perfection.
 Forget the nonsense categories of there and here,
 race, nation, religion,
 starting point and destination.
-12
+  
 You are soul, and you are love,
 not a sprite or an angel or a human being!
 Godman-womanGod-manGod-Godwoman!
@@ -246,7 +240,7 @@ 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.
-13
+  
 Look at the chefs preparing special plates
 for everyone according to what they need.
 Look at this cup that can hold the ocean.
@@ -265,11 +259,11 @@ side.” You’re on neither side, yet
 those who love you see you on one side
 or the other. You say Illa, “only God,”
 then your hungry eyes see you’re in
-“nothing,” La.15 You’re an artist
+“nothing,” La.   You’re an artist
 who paints both with existence and non.
 Shams could help you see who you are,
 but remember, You are not your eyes.
-14
+  
 W H A T W A S S A I D T O T H E R O S E
 What was said to the rose that made it open
 was said to me here in my chest.
@@ -293,9 +287,8 @@ I deserve nothing. Today I recognize
 that I am the guest the mystics talk about.
 I play this living music for my host.
 Everything today is for the host.
-15
 I M R A ’ U ‘ L - Q A Y S
-Imra’u ‘l-Qays,16 king of the Arabs,
+Imra’u ‘l-Qays,   king of the Arabs,
 was very handsome and a poet full of love songs.
 Women loved him desperately. Everyone loved him,
 but there came one night an experience
@@ -319,7 +312,6 @@ Imra’u ‘l-Qays kept silent.
 Then suddenly he leaned and whispered something
 in the second king’s ear, and that second
 king became a wild wanderer too.
-16
 They walked out of town hand in hand,
 no royal belts, no thrones.
 This is what love does and continues to do.
@@ -342,8 +334,7 @@ and carefully. Only God knows what they say.
 They use unsayable words. Bird language.
 But some people have imitated them, learned
 a few birdcalls, and gotten prestigious.
-17
-3. The Superabundance of
+The Superabundance of
 Ordinary Being
 Love is not love that doesn’t love the details of the beloved,
 the minute particulars. Judith and I were in Pammukkalle,
@@ -365,14 +356,13 @@ Isn’t it the secret intent
 of this taciturn earth, when it forces lovers together,
 that inside their boundless emotion all things may
 shudder with joy?
-18
 This resonant trembling of the earth with lovers, is the
 superabundance of being, a phrase from Rilke in Stephen
-Mitchell’s translation.17
+Mitchell’s translation.
 Rumi walks the granary amazed like an ant, small find-
 ings the given.
 Z U L E I K H A
-Zuleikha18 let everything be the name of Joseph,
+Zuleikha   let everything be the name of Joseph,
 from celery seed to aloes wood. She loved him
 so much she concealed his name in many phrases,
 the inner meanings known only to her.
@@ -391,7 +381,6 @@ Any complaint, it’s his being away.
 When she’s hungry, it’s for him. Thirsty, his name
 is a sherbet. Cold, he’s a fur. This is what
 the Friend can do when one is in such love.
-19
 The miracle Jesus did by being the name of God,
 Zuleikha felt in the name Joseph.
 When one is united to the core of another,
@@ -414,7 +403,7 @@ We’re this language that tries to say it.
 You’re joy. We’re all the different kinds
 of laughing. Any movement or sound
 is a profession of faith, as the millstone
-20
+  
 grinding is explaining how it believes
 in the river! No metaphor can say this,
 but I can’t stop pointing to the beauty.
@@ -436,7 +425,6 @@ The ocean pours through a jar,
 and you might say it swims inside
 the fish! This mystery gives peace to
 your longing and makes the road home home.
-21
 T H I S I S E N O U G H
 Aphrodite singing ghazals. A sky with
 gold streaks across. A stick
@@ -458,7 +446,7 @@ They meet him and ask, “Pardon us, sir,
 but have you seen Uzayr? We hear
 that he’s supposed to be coming along
 this road today.” “Yes,” says Uzayr,
-22
+  
 “he’s right behind me.” One of his sons
 replies, “That’s good news.” The other
 falls on the ground. He has recognized
@@ -480,7 +468,7 @@ The soul: a wide listening sky
 with thousands of candles.
 When anything is sold, soul gets given
 in the cash: people waiting at a door,
-23
+  
 a ladder leaning on a roof, someone
 climbing down. The market square bright
 with understanding. Listening
@@ -500,8 +488,8 @@ easy dance of jasmine and cypress. Cloth
 for green robes has been cut from pure
 absence. You’re the tailor, settled
 among his shop goods, quietly sewing.
-24
-4. Sudden Wholeness
+  
+ . Sudden Wholeness
 In this love kingdom there’s a windy blowing open of win-
 dows. Spring! Sounds of talking sprout. There’s a picnic by
 the river. Identity is music, and poems are rough notations
@@ -524,8 +512,7 @@ I, Chuang Tzu’s
 dreaming heart.
 Even in Kyoto —
 hearing the cuckoo’s cry —
-I long for Kyoto.19
-25
+I long for Kyoto.
 T H I S M A R K E T
 Can you find another market like this?
 Where, with your one rose
@@ -546,7 +533,7 @@ Anemones blush because they have seen
 the rose naked. Spring, the only fair
 judge, walks in the courtroom, and
 several December thieves steal away.
-26
+  
 Last year’s miracles will soon be
 forgotten. New creatures whirl in
 from nonexistence, galaxies scattered
@@ -568,7 +555,7 @@ Philosophers have said that we love music
 because it resembles the sphere-sounds
 of union. We’ve been part of a harmony
 before, so these moments of treble and bass
-27
+  
 keep our remembering fresh. But how
 does this happen within these dense bodies
 full of forgetfulness and doubt and
@@ -591,7 +578,7 @@ the bubbles. A more rational man gives advice,
 “You’ll regret doing this. You’re so far
 from the water that by the time you get down
 to gather walnuts, the water will have
-28
+  
 carried them away.” He replies, “I’m not
 here for walnuts, I want the music
 they make when they hit.”
@@ -610,7 +597,7 @@ will find this.
 A perfect falcon, for no reason,
 has landed on your shoulder,
 and become yours.
-29
+  
 This moment this love comes to rest in me,
 many beings in one being.
 In one wheat grain a thousand sheaf stacks.
@@ -627,7 +614,7 @@ one whole heart home.
 P A T T E R N
 When love itself comes to kiss you,
 don’t hold back! When the king goes hunting,
-30
+  
 the forest smiles. Now the king has become
 the place and all the players, prey,
 bystander, bow, arrow, hand and release.
@@ -652,8 +639,7 @@ no one reasonable, religious
 jargon forgotten, and Saladin
 there raising his hand to bid
 on the bedraggled boy Joseph!
-31
-5. Escaping into Silence
+Escaping into Silence
 Close the language-door (the mouth). Open the love-win-
 dow (the eyes). The moon (the reflected light of the
 divine) won’t use the door, only the window. Moving into
@@ -666,7 +652,7 @@ the nonverbal, but he’s actually trying to make the revela-
 tion that comes in language more experiential. I recom-
 mend we all try a day of silence with someone. Just one
 day!
-32
+  
 Q U I E T N E S S
 Inside this new love, die.
 Your way begins on the other side.
@@ -689,7 +675,7 @@ begs the pearl to break its shell.
 And the lily, how passionately
 it needs some wild darling!
 W A N T
-33
+  
 At night, I open the window and ask
 the moon to come and press its
 face against mine.
@@ -711,7 +697,7 @@ through a dry riverbed looking
 for what it thinks it wants.
 Stay here, quivering with each moment
 like a drop of mercury.
-34
+  
 B L E S S I N G T H E M A R R I A G E
 This marriage be wine with halvah,
 honey dissolving in milk.
@@ -732,7 +718,7 @@ considerations, we should give ourselves
 two days between layers of baklava
 in the quiet seclusion where soul sweetens
 and thrives more than with language.
-35
+  
 I hear nothing in my ear but your voice.
 Heart has plundered mind of its eloquence.
 Love writes a transparent calligraphy, so on
@@ -743,7 +729,7 @@ Freedom, or power over an entire nation?
 A little while alone in your room
 will prove more valuable than anything else
 that could ever be given you.
-36
+  
 P A S S A G E I N T O S I L E N C E
 The essence of darkness is light,
 as oil is the essence of this light.
@@ -769,8 +755,8 @@ another way.
 These words are an alternate
 existence. Hear the passage into
 silence and be that.
-37
-6. A New Life
+  
+ . A New Life
 As one becomes a lover, duties change to inspirations. Prac-
 tices become dance, poetry, creek music moving along.
 Impossible natural images of transformation appear: candle
@@ -790,18 +776,16 @@ answered by closing his eyes and making little kissing
 noises like a baby nursing. In this new life a baby is born
 in the heart. Purity comes and a playfulness, an ease, a
 peace. Gilani says this new heart-baby sometimes talks to
-the soul in dreams.20 Bawa says that this baby knows the lan-
+the soul in dreams. Bawa says that this baby knows the lan-
 guage of God. It understands every voice that floats on the
-wind because it is in unity and compassion.21 This baby has
+wind because it is in unity and compassion. This baby has
 none of the exclusivity of loving, the limits we learn and
 later, hopefully, unlearn from our families (the blood ties),
-our culture, religion, tribe, and nation. Bawa says human-
-38
-ity is “God’s funny family.” That’s how the baby sees.
+our culture, religion, tribe, and nation. Bawa says humanity is “God’s funny family.” That’s how the baby sees.
 I saw this baby come into my father’s eyes in the last
-weeks of his life in 1971. Everyone felt it. My mother died
-(she was sixty-four, lung cancer) on May 8, 1971. My dad
-died of a stroke on July 2, 1971, at seventy-two. In the time
+weeks of his life in     . Everyone felt it. My mother died
+(she was sixty-four, lung cancer) on May  ,     . My dad
+died of a stroke on July  ,     , at seventy-two. In the time
 between (fifty-five days), Dad lost all judgmental tenden-
 cies. He met everyone with unconditional love. He would
 go out on any excuse to walk around and talk with
@@ -830,7 +814,7 @@ what needed to be done, and he’d say, “That’s good. Go on
 back now.” Then he’d call another one, “Number twenty-
 four.” Stephan swears that he was present many times when
 this happened.
-39
+  
 Bawa went into the jungles of Sri Lanka for fifty years
 to watch the animals and learn about God. When your
 heart dissolves in this love, books are beside the point. We
@@ -838,7 +822,7 @@ learn from the taste of life events. Jelaluddin Chelebi once
 asked me what religion I was. I threw up my hands in the
 who knows gesture. “Good,” he said. “Love is the religion,
 and the universe is the book.”
-40
+  
 E S C A P I N G T O T H E F O R E S T
 Some souls have gotten free of their bodies.
 Do you see them? Open your eyes for those
@@ -857,7 +841,7 @@ Love sits beside me like a private supply of itself.
 Love puts away the instruments
 and takes off the silk robes. Our nakedness
 together changes me completely.
-41
+  
 A N Y C H A N C E M E E T I N G
 In every gathering, in any chance meeting
 on the street, there is a shine, an elegance
@@ -876,10 +860,10 @@ binding, slips from the falcon’s foot.
 His stones drink in water. His field shines like satin
 with gold threads in it. Someone dead a hundred
 years steps out strong and handsome.
-A broken stick breaks into bud.22
+A broken stick breaks into bud.  
 If you love love,
 look for yourself.
-42
+  
 What I say makes me drunk.
 Nightingale, iris, parrot, jasmine,
 I speak those languages, along with
@@ -903,7 +887,7 @@ The world has some share in this cup.
 That’s how it turns green.
 Let the lean
 and wounded be revived in your garden.
-43
+  
 How would the soul feel in the beloved’s
 river?
 Fish washed free and clean of fear.
@@ -916,13 +900,13 @@ Osmond joins the circle! We will say
 the poem again so he can play.
 There is
 no end to anything round.
-44
-7. Grief
+  
+ . Grief
 The deeper the grief, the more radiant the love. We miss
 our friend. Lovers’ tears are the true wealth. My friend John
 Seawright used to say that the real tragedy is when you
 don’t feel much of anything when someone dies. That lack
-of grieving, the feel of not to feel it,23 is not heard much in
+of grieving, the feel of not to feel it,   is not heard much in
 Rumi.
 I recently saw Fierce Grace, about Ram Dass’s life and par-
 ticularly the stroke. The movie focuses on the use of the
@@ -941,9 +925,9 @@ past. Grief opens us to more love, and the new love builds
 with the former, and there’s miraculous expansion. It’s a rare
 movie that gives off the fragrance of enlightened love. This
 one does.
-45
+  
 T H E D E A T H O F S A L A D I N
-You left ground and sky weeping,24
+You left ground and sky weeping,  
 mind and soul full of grief.
 No one can take your place in existence
 or in absence. Both mourn,
@@ -964,7 +948,7 @@ went like an arrow, and now the bow
 trembles and sobs.
 If you know how to weep for human beings,
 weep for Saladin.
-46
+  
 B I R D W I N G S
 Your grief for what you’ve lost lifts a mirror
 up to where you’re bravely working.
@@ -986,7 +970,7 @@ in kind. Love is a madman,
 working his wild schemes, tearing off his clothes,
 running through the mountains, drinking poison,
 and now quietly choosing annihilation.
-47
+  
 A tiny spider tries to wrap an enormous wasp.
 Think of the spiderweb woven across the cave
 where Muhammad slept! There are love stories,
@@ -1007,7 +991,7 @@ above and below. The sun rises, but which way
 does night go? I have no more words.
 Let soul speak with the silent
 articulation of a face.
-48
+  
 T H E A L L U R E O F L O V E
 Someone who does not run
 toward the allure of love walks
@@ -1026,7 +1010,7 @@ of their freedom.
 How do they learn that?
 They fall, and falling,
 they’re given wings.
-49
+  
 I T H R O W I T A L L A W A Y
 You play with the great globe of union,
 you that see everyone so clearly
@@ -1050,7 +1034,7 @@ the well work, yellow roses by ocean,
 the longing, the archangel Gabriel
 saying So be it. Shamsi Tabriz, your face,
 is what every religion tries to remember.
-50
+  
 I’ve broken through to longing now,
 filled with a grief I have felt before,
 but never like this.
@@ -1068,7 +1052,7 @@ Love moves away.
 The light changes.
 I need more grace
 than I thought.
-51
+  
 T H E P U R P O S E O F E M O T I O N
 A certain Sufi tore his robe in grief,
 and the tearing brought such relief he gave the robe
@@ -1090,8 +1074,8 @@ like the ground.
 Give back better, as rough clods return
 an ear of corn, a tassel, a barley
 awn, this sleek handful of oats.
-52
-8. Tavern Madness
+  
+ . Tavern Madness
 There is an overwhelming contact with the divine called
 drunkenness. The tavern is a place of shared mystical experi-
 ence as opposed to the church with its tradition of received,
@@ -1106,7 +1090,7 @@ prayers, then home. It is a state of stunned surrender that
 will eventually be left behind for the clarity of dawn. The
 tavern mystic must go “beyond the drunkenness of God’s
 overwhelming and come to the clarity of sobriety, where
-contemplation is restored.”25 In the tavern one is absent and
+contemplation is restored.”   In the tavern one is absent and
 present at the same time. Junnaiyd says there is a sobriety
 that contains all drunkenness, but there is no drunkenness
 that contains all sobriety. In this region there’s flailing
@@ -1117,7 +1101,7 @@ estries depicting long passionate stories about the hurt of
 separation, the consuming intensity of desire, love in the
 Western world.
 Thich Nhat Hanh tells a wonderful story in his com-
-53
+  
 mentaries on the Buddha’s Heart Sutra about how the
 opposites of good and evil only seem to oppose each other.
 He shows how they are actually great buddies who meet in
@@ -1146,11 +1130,11 @@ Buddha listened with compassion. “Do you think it’s fun
 being a Buddha? My disciples put words in my mouth that I
 never said. They build garish temples. They package my
 teachings as items for commerce. Mara, you don’t really want
-to be a Buddha!”26
+to be a Buddha!”  
 Ananda continued to be puzzled and amazed by their
 conversation. The beautiful wholeness of it cannot be
 accepted by the mind.
-54
+  
 I am a glass of wine with dark sediment.
 I pour it all in the river.
 Love says to me, “Good, but you don’t see
@@ -1172,7 +1156,7 @@ In the blackness those friends keep arguing.
 Like a wanderer with no face.
 Like the most powerful bird in existence
 sitting on its perch, refusing to move.
-55
+  
 I ’ M N O T S A Y I N G T H I S R I G H T
 You bind me, and I tear away in a rage
 to open out into air, a round
@@ -1194,7 +1178,7 @@ W H O S A Y S W O R D S W I T H M Y Who looks out with my eyes? What is
 the soul? I cannot stop asking.
 If I could taste one sip of an answer,
 I could break out of this prison for drunks.
-56
+  
 M O U T H ?
 I didn’t come here of my own accord,
 and I can’t leave that way.
@@ -1209,12 +1193,12 @@ we glow and in the evening we glow again.
 They say there’s no future for us. They’re right.
 Which is fine with us.
 Real value comes with madness,
-matzoob27 below, scientist above.
+matzoob   below, scientist above.
 Whoever finds love
 beneath hurt and grief
 disappears into emptiness
 with a thousand new disguises.
-57
+  
 A C A P T O W E A R I N B O T H W O R L D S
 There is a passion in me that doesn’t
 long for anything from another human being.
@@ -1235,7 +1219,7 @@ There’s a strange frenzy in my head,
 of birds flying,
 each particle circulating on its own.
 Is the one I love everywhere?
-58
+  
 F R I N G E
 You wreck my shop and my house and now my heart,
 but how can I run from what gives me life?
@@ -1253,7 +1237,7 @@ Drunks fear the police,
 but the police are drunk too.
 People in this town, we love them
 both like different chess pieces.
-59
+  
 T H E A C H E A N D C O N F U S I O N
 Near the end you saw rose and thorn together,
 evening and morning light commingling.
@@ -1274,7 +1258,7 @@ like tomorrow in different calligraphy
 styles sliding by, darkening the paper.
 Now it’s held upside down, now beside
 the head, now down and on to something
-60
+  
 else, figuring. One sentence saves
 an illustrious man from disaster, but
 fame does not matter to the split tongue
@@ -1287,8 +1271,8 @@ Opposites are drawn into your presence but
 not to be resolved. You are not whole
 or ever complete. You are the wonder
 without willpower going where you want.
-61
-9. Absence
+  
+ . Absence
 Love as a way into God is wild and bewildering. Union!
 Absence! What do these words mean? Attar says if you
 want to learn the secrets of love that your soul can know,
@@ -1297,7 +1281,7 @@ considered valuable, but eventually you’ll hear the voice
 you’ve most wanted to hear saying, Yes. Come in.”
 Another Sufi, Junnaiyd, recommends that we JUMP!
 “Plunge headfirst into the ocean of your loving. Then look
-around patiently for the pearl that is yours.”28 This heart-
+around patiently for the pearl that is yours.”   This heart-
 region is a vast emptiness. Nevit Ergin calls it absence. Rumi
 explores the images of a desert night, an empty pot, a
 house with a broken door, the weaning of a child, the flute
@@ -1314,11 +1298,11 @@ Cleopatra, Anna Karenina, Jude the Obscure, Lorca’s love poems,
 Millay’s, they all have wisdom for the various stages of
 love’s progress. Rumi, Hafez, and Emily Dickinson have
 ideas and images for the annihilation of absence.
-62
+  
 The Infinite a sudden Guest
 Has been assumed to be
 But how can that stupendous come
-Which never went away?29
+Which never went away?  
 Some people entertain this guest in specific physical
 form for a certain amount of time. Be grateful for such a
 chance, but remember, everyone has in them the great love
@@ -1329,8 +1313,8 @@ all the universes in a thin sack
 of blood! What are these pleasures
 then, these joys, these worlds,
 that you keep reaching for, hoping
-they will make you more alive?30
-63
+they will make you more alive?  
+  
 L I K E L I G H T O V E R T H I S P L A I N
 A moth flying into the flame says
 with its wingfire, Try this.
@@ -1354,7 +1338,7 @@ to Hamza’s emptiness.
 Everything begs with the silent rocks for you
 to be flung out like light over this plain,
 the presence of Shams.
-64
+  
 C A N D L E L I G H T B E C O M E S M O T H
 Inside a lover’s heart there’s another world,
 and yet another.
@@ -1375,14 +1359,14 @@ If you want dervishhood, spiritual poverty
 and emptiness, you must be friends with a teacher.
 Talking about it, reading books, and doing practices
 don’t help. Soul receives from soul that knowing.
-65
+  
 The mystery of absence
 may be living in your pilgrim heart,
 and yet the knowing of it may not yet be yours.
 Wait for the illuminated openness,
 as though your chest were filling with light,
 as when God said,
-Did we not expand you? (Qur’an 57:4)
+Did we not expand you? (Qur’an   : )
 Don’t look for it outside yourself.
 You are the source of milk. Don’t milk others!
 There is a fountain inside you.
@@ -1391,7 +1375,7 @@ You have a channel into the ocean,
 yet you ask for water from a little pool.
 Beg for the love expansion. Meditate only
 on THAT. The Qur’an says,
-And he is with you. (57:4)
+And he is with you. (  : )
 There is a basket of fresh bread on your head,
 yet you go door to door asking for crusts.
 Knock on the inner door, no other.
@@ -1399,7 +1383,7 @@ Sloshing knee-deep in fresh riverwater,
 yet you keep asking for other people’s waterbags.
 Water is everywhere around you, but you see
 only barriers that keep you from water.
-66
+  
 The horse is beneath the rider’s thighs,
 and still you ask, “Where’s my horse?”
 Right there,
@@ -1424,7 +1408,7 @@ Instead of being so bound up with everyone,
 be everyone.
 When you become that many, you’re nothing.
 Empty.
-67
+  
 T H I S T O R T U R E
 Why should we tell you our love stories
 when you spill them together like blood in the dirt?
@@ -1441,8 +1425,8 @@ Beyond and within those
 is one saying,
 How long before
 I’m free of this torture!
-68
-10. Animal Energies
+  
+  . Animal Energies
 Any love: earth-love, spirit, the way of a man with a maid,
 the way of a dog with almost anybody, the way of a hawk
 with the wind, of a swan with a pond, of grandparents with
@@ -1450,7 +1434,7 @@ grandchildren, of an ant with a grain of corn, of a lion with
 a gazelle, all the natural drawings-together lead eventually
 to annihilation. This is the mystery of the animal energies.
 Rumi says, astonishingly, “God lives between a human
-being and the object of his desire” (Discourse No. 44). This
+being and the object of his desire” (Discourse No.   ). This
 is radical theology to this day, when major crises have
 roots in sexual repression—the Catholic pedophile priesty
 boys; the Muslim enraged-at-women, dismayed-by-West-
@@ -1468,7 +1452,7 @@ Joseph Campbell called him “god of the cave.” He does the
 dance of human and animal at once, owl, lion, horse, stag,
 man. He incorporates them all visually and looks out at
 you with your own menagerie, who have gone inward far
-69
+  
 enough to meet his gaze. Animals can live inside the land-
 scape without our noisy self-consciousness. When we turn
 and go with them as Whitman did, we enter a silence and a
@@ -1477,7 +1461,7 @@ energies. This is a metaphor, a tremendously important
 one, as well as an experience.
 Hazrat Inayat Khan says that seekers should “accom-
 plish their desires that they may thus be able to rise above
-them to the eternal goal.”31 At the core of each person’s
+them to the eternal goal.”   At the core of each person’s
 nature are unique seeds of desiring, which flourish through
 the development of personality, not through any suppres-
 sion of it. We are not to become pale renunciate ciphers
@@ -1502,7 +1486,7 @@ of flame and eros and says, This is the dance of existence. A
 great mutual embrace is always happening between the
 eternal and what dies, between essence and accident. We
 are all writing the book of love. Everything goes in. All the
-70
+  
 particles of the world are in love and looking for lovers.
 Pieces of straw tremble in the presence of amber. Isn’t that
 the deal? We’re here to love each other, to deepen and
@@ -1536,7 +1520,7 @@ a place where another dog has urinated, then to roll on a
 dead fish. He will drag us around like this if we let him; he
 will take over our lives. We must discipline this dog and
 sometimes tie him up in the backyard and give him only
-71
+  
 scraps.” He had my number. Do not neglect the licking, though,
 is still my bullish theme.
 Interesting in this regard are the names that Bawa
@@ -1554,7 +1538,7 @@ Note. The reference above to “priesty boys” and “Mus-
 lim vandals” is very un-Bawa. Snide, divisive, pleased-with-
 its-clever-self remarks will probably not help bring us into
 one loving family.
-72
+  
 Think that you’re gliding out from the face of a cliff
 like an eagle. Think you’re walking
 like a tiger walks by himself in the forest.
@@ -1577,7 +1561,7 @@ and turn away. Others sit in the hot bathwater
 and get clean. They use the world differently.
 They love the feel of purity, and they have
 dust marks on their foreheads from bowing down.
-73
+  
 They are separated by a wall from those
 who feed the fires, busy in the boiler room
 belittling each other. Sometimes, though,
@@ -1600,7 +1584,7 @@ lips that say Mashallah, Mashallah.
 Wonderful. God inside attraction.
 A spring no one knew of wells up
 on the valley floor.
-74
+  
 Lights inside a tent lovers move toward.
 The refuse of Damascus gets turned over
 in the sun. Be like that yourself.
@@ -1622,7 +1606,7 @@ B R E A D M A K I N G
 There was a feast. The king was in his cups.
 He saw a learned scholar walking by.
 “Bring him in and give him some of this fine wine.”
-75
+  
 Servants rushed out and brought the man
 to the king’s table, but he was not receptive.
 “I had rather drink poison! Take it away!”
@@ -1651,7 +1635,7 @@ His mouth hung open. He wanted her! Right then,
 he wanted her! And she was not unwilling.
 They fell to, on the ground. You’ve seen a baker
 rolling dough. He kneads it gently at first,
-76
+  
 then more roughly. He pounds it on the board.
 It softly groans under his palms.
 Now he spreads
@@ -1676,7 +1660,7 @@ The sport has different rules in every case,
 but it’s basically the same,
 and remember, the way
 you make love is the way God will be with you.
-77
+  
 S E X U A L U R G E N C Y A N D T R U E V I R I L I T Y
 Someone offhand to the Caliph of Egypt,
 “The King of Mosul
@@ -1702,7 +1686,7 @@ Objects move from inorganic
 to vegetation, to selves endowed with spirit,
 through the urgency of every love
 that wants to consummate.
-78
+  
 The Captain thinks the soil looks fertile,
 so he sows his seed. Sleeping,
 he makes love to a dream image of the girl,
@@ -1733,7 +1717,7 @@ A black lion from a nearby swamp
 has gotten in among the horses.
 The Captain leaps up with bare bottom
 shining, scimitar in hand.
-79
+  
 The lion is jumping twenty feet
 in the air, tents billowing
 like an ocean. The Captain splits the lion’s head
@@ -1766,7 +1750,7 @@ form and speech.
 They are crying to you now.
 You have forgotten us. Come back!
 Be aware of this.
-80
+  
 A man and woman together always have a spirit-result.
 The Captain was not so aware.
 He fell and stuck like a gnat
@@ -1787,7 +1771,7 @@ like a mouse might make,
 a suggestion from God that he lay off these voluptuous
 doings. The penis droops
 and desire slips away.
-81
+  
 The girl remembers the Captain running out to kill the lion
 with his member
 standing straight up, then the running back.
@@ -1815,7 +1799,7 @@ May you both enjoy the pleasure.”
 This is the virility
 of a prophet. The Caliph was sexually impotent,
 but his manliness was powerful.
-82
+  
 The kernel of true manhood is
 the ability to abandon sensual indulgence.
 The intensity
@@ -1845,7 +1829,7 @@ at the bathhouse is washing her hair.
 “What have I done!
 I’ve set cotton wool on fire! I’ve put the ram in
 with the ewe!”
-83
+  
 She washed the clay soap off and ran, fixing
 her chador about her as she went.
 The maid ran for love.
@@ -1878,7 +1862,7 @@ with clothes, he holds up some flaps and edges. She sees
 his testicles and penis so wet,
 semen still dribbling out,
 spurts of jism and vaginal juices
-84
+  
 drenching the thighs
 of the maid.
 The wife slaps him
@@ -1892,10 +1876,10 @@ These are good questions.
 People who repress desires
 often turn, suddenly,
 into hypocrites.
-85
-11. Love’s Secret
+  
+  . Love’s Secret
 Rumi makes preposterous claims. One of the most startling
-is, “Our loving is the way God’s secret gets told!”32 Love is
+is, “Our loving is the way God’s secret gets told!”   Love is
 an open secret, the most obvious thing in the world and the
 most hidden, with no why to how it keeps its mystery. Sufis
 say the genesis of lovers meeting is God’s sweetest secret.
@@ -1919,7 +1903,7 @@ course began and ended with a declaration of the family
 connection.
 Some may dismiss this as one-world, peacenik senti-
 mentality. I’m not advocating we disband the armies yet, or
-86
+  
 even the churches, though that’s tempting to say. It’s good
 to have sanctuaries and singing and silence and Wednes-
 day night prayer. We need more sacred space outdoors,
@@ -1936,7 +1920,7 @@ fights and no arguments. For that One everything is love;
 everything is in the form of love, compassion, and truth. May
 God provide you with the blessings and grace to live in that
 state.
-87
+  
 C L O S E TO B E I N G T R U E
 How can we know the divine qualities
 from within? If we know only
@@ -1960,7 +1944,7 @@ They have doubts about soul water.
 Those doubts can be reduced! Use night
 to wake your clarity. Darkness and the living water
 are lovers. Let them stay up together.
-88
+  
 When merchants eat their big meals
 and sleep their dead sleep,
 we night-thieves go to work.
@@ -1980,7 +1964,7 @@ the secret. Call the secret
 language and never be sure
 what you conceal. It’s unsure
 people who get the blessing.
-89
+  
 Climbing jasmine, opening rose,
 nightingale song, these are
 inside the chill November
@@ -2003,7 +1987,7 @@ every lover’s tear you saw the face
 of the Friend: Muhammad, Jesus, Buddha,
 the impossible-possible philosopher,
 the glass diamond one, Shams Tabriz?
-90
+  
 They try to say what you are, spiritual or sexual?
 They wonder about Solomon and all his wives.
 In the body of the world, they say, there is a soul
@@ -2015,8 +1999,8 @@ There is light and wine and sweethearts
 in the pomegranate flowers.
 If you do not come, these do not matter.
 If you do come, these do not matter.
-91
-12. Love’s Discipline
+  
+  . Love’s Discipline
 Rumi says an ecstatic human being is a polished mirror that
 cannot help reflecting. What we love, we are. As the heart
 comes cleaner, we see the kingdom as it is. We become
@@ -2040,7 +2024,7 @@ a creativeness at the end of the polishing that Rumi calls
 “looking into the creek.” It’s as though seeing becomes
 lucid dreaming. We watch the play of soul creatures. The
 gates of light swing open. We look in.
-92
+  
 W H O M A K E S Who makes these changes?
 I shoot an arrow right.
 It lands left.
@@ -2064,7 +2048,7 @@ and descriptions of heroism.
 Like a pure spirit lying down, pulling
 its body over it, like a bride her husband
 for a cover to keep her warm.
-93
+  
 T H E D O G Now, what if a dog’s owner
 were not able to control it?
 P R O B L E M
@@ -2088,7 +2072,7 @@ There is only God.
 The hornets are his sexual memories, this woman,
 that, or if a woman, this man, that.
 The head comes up. They sting.
-94
+  
 Breathe water. Become river head to foot.
 Hornets leave you alone then.
 Even if you’re far from the river,
@@ -2114,7 +2098,7 @@ Don’t try to control a wild horse by grabbing its leg.
 Take hold the neck. Use a bridle. Be sensible.
 Then ride! There is a need for self-denial.
 Don’t be contemptuous of old obediences. They help.
-95
+  
 T H E C O R E O F M A S C U L I N I T Y
 The core of masculinity does not derive
 from being male, nor friendliness
@@ -2136,7 +2120,7 @@ I honor those who try
 to rid themselves of lying,
 who empty the self
 and have only clear being there.
-96
+  
 T H E S O U L’ S F R I E N D
 Listen to your essential self, the Friend.
 When you feel longing, be patient,
@@ -2157,7 +2141,7 @@ Don’t think, But those others love me so.
 Some invitations sound like the fowler’s whistle
 to the quail, friendly, but not quite
 how you remember the call of your soul’s Friend.
-97
+  
 L O N G I N G
 Longing is the core of mystery.
 Longing itself brings the cure.
@@ -2179,7 +2163,7 @@ The others love the beauty of the nurse.
 The former memorize the prooftexts of conformity
 and repeat them. The latter disappear
 into whatever draws them to God.
-98
+  
 Both are drawn from the source.
 Any motion is from the mover.
 Any love from the beloved.
@@ -2205,7 +2189,7 @@ and expect to be paid for it!” A servant wants
 to be rewarded for what he does. A lover wants
 only to be in love’s presence, that ocean
 whose depth will never be known.
-99
+  
 L O O K I N G I N TO T H E C R E E K
 The way the soul is with the senses and the intellect
 is like a creek.
@@ -2231,7 +2215,7 @@ As everything changes overnight, I praise
 the breaking of promises.
 Whatever love wants,
 it gets, not next year, now!
-100
+   
 I swear by the one who never says tomorrow,
 as the circle of the moon refuses to sell
 installments of light. It gives all it has.
@@ -2248,8 +2232,8 @@ Lover and Friend are one being,
 and separate beings too,
 as the polisher melts
 in the mirror’s face.
-101
-13. Shift from Romance to Friendship
+   
+  . Shift from Romance to Friendship
 The story of the king, the handmaiden, and the doctor is of
 the movement from the erotic love of romance to the love
 of a meeting with the Friend, which is the mystery of this
@@ -2273,7 +2257,7 @@ This Friendship breaks through the stalled-limbo of desire
 to become a reckoning (the astrolabe image) “that sights
 into the mysteries of God.” Love changes from the exciting
 synapse of relationship to a condition of being, the truest health.
-102
+   
 B U R N T K A B O B
 Last year, I admired the wines. This,
 I’m wandering inside the red world.
@@ -2295,7 +2279,7 @@ But listen to me: for one moment,
 quit being sad. Hear blessings
 dropping their blossoms
 around you. God.
-103
+   
 S I T T I N G I N T H E O R C H A R D
 A man sits in an orchard, fruit trees full
 and the vines plump. He has his head
@@ -2317,7 +2301,7 @@ T H E P R I N C E O F K A B U L
 Here is a story of a young prince who suddenly sees
 that the ambitious world is a big game
 of king of the mountain, a boy scrambling up
-104
+   
 a pile of sand to call out, “I am king.”
 Then another throws him off to make his momentary
 claim, then another and so on.
@@ -2342,7 +2326,7 @@ in dream can actually happen any second!
 If my son dies, I will need a keepsake.
 When a candle goes out, you need another
 lit candle. My son must give us offspring.
-105
+   
 He’s of marriageable age. I’ll find
 him a bride. This is flawless reasoning,
 dear reader. Open any medical text and look
@@ -2367,7 +2351,7 @@ with Babylonian magic, so that he leaves
 his bride at the wedding, and for a year
 he kisses the sole of her Kabulian shoe.
 Everyone weeps for him, while he laughs
-106
+   
 in his ignorance. His father the king prays
 constantly, Lord! Lord, and because of that
 surrendered calling out, a master comes
@@ -2392,7 +2376,7 @@ is so astonished by how the old woman
 enthralled him, and by the return of his wisdom,
 that he falls down in a swoon for three
 days. Little by little with rosewater remedies
-107
+   
 he wakes again. A year passes in this new life.
 Then the king begins to joke with his son,
 “Do you remember that old friend of yours,
@@ -2417,7 +2401,7 @@ to go. Selflessness is your true self, sword
 and shroud. Whereas this is how
 most people live: sleeping on the bank
 of a freshwater stream, lips dry with thirst.
-108
+   
 In the dream you’re running toward a mirage.
 As you run, you’re proud of being the one
 who sees the oasis. You brag to your friends,
@@ -2442,7 +2426,7 @@ compassion for this suffering?” He answers,
 “To your eyes this is a drought. To me,
 it’s a form of God’s joy. Everywhere
 in this desert I see green corn growing
-109
+   
 waist-high, a sea-wilderness of young ears
 greener than leeks. I reach to touch them.
 How could I not! You and your friends
@@ -2467,7 +2451,7 @@ in your ears. The tree limbs will move
 like people dancing who suddenly know
 the mystical life. The leaves snap
 their fingers like they’re hearing music.
-110
+   
 They are! A sliver of mirror shines out
 from under a felt covering. Think how
 it will be when the whole thing is open
@@ -2479,7 +2463,7 @@ The heart? A sacred half-light, are you that?
 Do you grow gatherings? Are you a friend
 of the sun, who comes and goes so quickly?
 Do not forget your vertical passage,
-the night of power,33
+the night of power,  
 and don’t hide from the one
 for whom all our secrets are down in the pillow under
 his head, doctor of lovers, soul for
@@ -2490,7 +2474,7 @@ No belief is necessary to enter this tent
 where one love story changes to another.
 I remember that with these words brought here
 by a falcon from the wrist of Shams.
-111
+   
 T H E If the beloved is everywhere,
 the lover is a veil,
 but when living itself
@@ -2515,7 +2499,7 @@ The feelings
 trembled and flapped in his chest like a bird
 newly put in a cage.
 But as soon as she arrived, she fell ill.
-112
+   
 He brought doctors together. “You have both our lives
 in your hands. Her life is my life. Whoever heals her
 will receive the finest treasure I have, the coral inlaid
@@ -2548,7 +2532,7 @@ had been. He led him to the head table.
 I have found what patience can bring, this one
 whose face answers any question, who simply by looking
 can loosen the knot of intellectual discussion.”
-113
+   
 They talked and ate a spirit-meal. Then the king
 took the doctor to where the girl lay.
 The secret
@@ -2581,7 +2565,7 @@ But Husam begs, “Feed me. Hurry!
 Time is a sharp downstroke. A Sufi is supposed
 to be a child of the moment! Don’t say tomorrow or later.”
 I reply,
-114
+   
 “It’s better that the way of the Friend
 be concealed in a story. Let the mystery come through
 what people say around the lovers, not from what
@@ -2615,7 +2599,7 @@ She misses him so.
 “Where exactly does he live?”
 “At the head of the bridge on Ghatafar Street.”
 “Now I can heal you.”
-115
+   
 The doctor went to the king
 and told him only part of the story. “On some pretext
 we must bring a certain goldsmith from Samarkand.”
@@ -2644,21 +2628,21 @@ even though it might not seem so.
 Such a doctor
 is part of a larger generosity. Don’t judge his actions.
 You are not living so completely within the truth as he is.
-116
+   
 Reason has no way to say
 its love. Only love opens
 that secret.
 If you want
 to be more alive, love
 is the truest health.
-117
-14. Union
+   
+  . Union
 The intensest, the most poignant cry comes from one who
 has known the union and lost it. Rumi says, Give me his
 longing!
 I have seen one living in the state of union, at least
 one. They may exist in various guises all around us. Bawa
-Muhaiyaddeen34 was totally present in each moment and
+Muhaiyaddeen   was totally present in each moment and
 so attentive to every detail, the tiniest bit of outer onion-
 skin left on a chopped bit, and also he felt with each
 breath the divine presence flowing through him. It was
@@ -2678,7 +2662,7 @@ much to say about the innermost heart, the qalb. He lived
 there. He called it a house with ninety-nine windows (the
 qualities of God), a sanctuary, a flowering plenitude, a
 benevolence, a piece of flesh that does not die, the kaaba of
-118
+   
 the true pilgrimage, and source of the light that is the ruh,
 the soul. He also held that human beings cannot, and must
 not, judge one another’s innermost heart. Only divine wis-
@@ -2695,7 +2679,7 @@ ness. Hangover remorse can be helpful then. The work of
 balancing love (enthusiasm) and discipline (practical help-
 fulness) is beautifully addressed in the first poem of this
 section, the drink of water that is “The Sunrise Ruby.”
-119
+   
 T H E S U N R I S E R U B Y
 In the early morning hour,
 just before dawn, lover and beloved wake
@@ -2720,7 +2704,7 @@ is a ring on the door.
 Keep knocking, and the joy inside
 will eventually open a window
 and look out to see who’s there.
-120
+   
 T H E G E N E R AT I O N S Yesterday the beauty of early dawn
 came over me, and I wondered who
 my heart would reach toward. Then
@@ -2742,7 +2726,7 @@ and no trunk! Have you seen it?
 The mind cannot. Your desiring
 cannot. The longing you feel for
 this love comes from inside you.
-121
+   
 When you become the Friend, your
 longing will be as the man in
 the ocean who holds to a piece of
@@ -2765,7 +2749,7 @@ has a hangover from bad-desire wine,
 the way he cries out for the majesty
 he’s lost,
 give me that longing!
-122
+   
 S O U L , H E A R T, A N D B O DY O N E M O R N I N G
 There’s a morning where presence comes over you,
 and you sing like a rooster in your earth-colored shape.
@@ -2788,8 +2772,8 @@ When the soul lies down in that grass,
 the world is too full to talk about.
 Ideas, language, even the phrase each other,
 doesn’t make any sense.
-123
-15. Die Before You Die
+   
+  . Die Before You Die
 Death is key to this drastic change described in the last
 section. When we know in some deeply certain way that
 we are going to die, we move toward surrender more
@@ -2804,8 +2788,8 @@ H U S A M
 There is a way of passing away from the personal,
 a dying that makes one plural.
 A gnat lights in buttermilk to become nourishment
-for many. Your soul is like that, Husam.35
-124
+for many. Your soul is like that, Husam.  
+   
 Hundreds of thousands of impressions
 from the invisible are wanting to come through you!
 I get dizzy with the abundance. When life
@@ -2827,7 +2811,7 @@ Lovers are alive to the extent
 they can die. A great soul approaches
 Shams. What are you doing here?
 Answer: What is there to do?
-125
+   
 T H AT Q U I C K
 A lover looks at creekwater and wants to be
 that quick to fall, to kneel, then all
@@ -2851,7 +2835,7 @@ I have cleared this house, so that your work
 can, when it comes, fill every room.
 I slide like an empty boat
 pulled over the water.
-126
+   
 In the slaughterhouse of love they kill only
 the best, none of the weak or deformed.
 Don’t run away from this dying.
@@ -2869,7 +2853,7 @@ as medicine, as happiness, as the moment
 when you’re beaten, when you hear Checkmate,
 and can finally say with Hallaj’s voice,
 I trust you to kill me.
-127
+   
 I M A D U ’ L - M U L K
 Remember the story of the king who is so enraged
 with his close friend that he’s about to kill him!
@@ -2886,7 +2870,7 @@ a hundred festival days without him. Inside
 the presence there’s no religion, no grace, no
 unfaithfulness, no punishment, and no language can say
 anything about it, except that it is hidden, hidden.
-128
+   
 You have said what you are.
 I am what I am.
 Your actions in my head,
@@ -2899,8 +2883,8 @@ Some nights stay up till dawn,
 as the moon sometimes does for the sun.
 Be a full bucket pulled up the dark way
 of a well, then lifted out into light.
-129
-16. Harsh Evidence
+   
+  . Harsh Evidence
 For Kharraqani and his wife love is conflict, necessary opposi-
 tion. Two armies set the battle lines, a black flag here, a
 white flag there, then something happens between them.
@@ -2925,11 +2909,11 @@ ingly, or knowingly, and that one actively tries to avoid
 reentering. I don’t use it much, and know very little about
 it, but the word karma may belong here, along with Auden’s
 stanza,
-130
+   
 O stand, stand at the window
 As the tears scald and start;
 You shall love your crooked neighbor
-With your crooked heart.36
+With your crooked heart.  
 W. H. Auden is one of the best-loved poets in English
 for the very reason that he brings in the acerbic, the faith-
 less, and the shadow within the deeply felt joy of his lov-
@@ -2937,12 +2921,12 @@ ing. There’s an impending danger. To leave that dimension
 out of love poems is not to tell the full truth. Auden is gay,
 too, in all senses, which adds more depths to his cultural
 work.
-131
+   
 K H A R R A Q A N I ’ S M A R R I A G E
 The young seeker wonders, How could a teacher
 lie with that woman! Can a guide agree
 with a thief?
-Suddenly Sheikh Kharraqani37 appears, riding a lion,
+Suddenly Sheikh Kharraqani   appears, riding a lion,
 firewood stacked behind him. His whip,
 a live serpent. Every master rides a fierce lion,
 whether you see it or not. Know this
@@ -2960,7 +2944,7 @@ present. Two banners, one black, one white,
 and between them something gets settled.
 Between Pharaoh and Moses,
 the Red Sea.”
-132
+   
 H A R S H E V I D E N C E
 What sort of person says that he or she wants
 to be polished and pure, then complains
@@ -2983,7 +2967,7 @@ and cause herbs and eglantine to grow out of them.
 The sun does this with the ground.
 Think what glories God can make
 from the fertilizer of sinning!
-133
+   
 C A N D L E AT N O O N
 A man is wandering the marketplace at noon
 with a candle in his hand, totally ecstatic.
@@ -3003,7 +2987,7 @@ part of the truth.
 D O V E S
 People want you to be happy.
 Don’t keep serving them your pain!
-134
+   
 If you could untie your wings
 and free your soul of jealousy,
 you and everyone around you
@@ -3021,7 +3005,7 @@ When words are tinged with lying,
 they’re like water dripping into an oil lamp.
 The wick won’t light, and the pleasure
 of your love room will diminish.
-135
+   
 T H E R E YO U A R E
 You’re inside every kindness. When a sick
 person feels better, you’re that,
@@ -3043,7 +3027,7 @@ the same. There you are. Whatever anyone
 wants or not: political power, injustice,
 material possessions, those are your script,
 the handwriting we study. Body, soul,
-136
+   
 shadow. Whether reckless or careful,
 you are what we do. It’s absurd to ask
 your pardon. You’re inside repentance,
@@ -3063,7 +3047,7 @@ There’s a shredding that’s really a healing,
 that makes you more alive!
 A lion holds you in his arms.
 Fingers rake the fretbridge for music.
-137
+   
 Dance, when you’re broken open.
 Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off.
 Dance in the middle of the fighting.
@@ -3081,9 +3065,9 @@ The trunks of trees must be cut and cut again
 so they can be used for fine carpentry.
 Your doctor must have a broken leg to doctor.
 Your defects are the ways that glory gets manifested.
-138
-17. Meditation Pavane
-This was my dream of August 10, 2001. I am a book in
+   
+  . Meditation Pavane
+This was my dream of August   ,     . I am a book in
 three parts. The first and last have generic, ineffable desig-
 nations, the beginning-less beginning and the endless end. The
 middle part where (who) I am has an odd name that I see
@@ -3092,7 +3076,7 @@ record the dream and think I have seen the word pavane
 before, though I don’t know what it means, some kind of
 music? I look it up in the dictionary. “A grave and stately
 dance performed by couples in elaborate clothing, of
-Spanish and Italian origin, 15–16th century.” A Mediter-
+Spanish and Italian origin,   –  th century.” A Mediter-
 ranean courtship dance, with a circle of elders observing.
 The word derives from a colloquial name for Padua and is
 related by folk etymology to the French pavaner, meaning
@@ -3106,24 +3090,24 @@ times have pavonine rings around their necks. I go to the
 Internet to search for pavane. The third item down has two
 familiar names, Barry and Shelley Phillips, friends of a
 friend, whom I will soon meet and do a bookstore Rumi
-reading with in Santa Cruz (October 2001). They are
+reading with in Santa Cruz (October     ). They are
 musicians specializing in Appalachian, Shaker, and Celtic
-139
+   
 melodies. Shelley has a CD called Pavane. Gourd Music is
 their label! I have published a volume of my own poetry,
-Gourd Seed (1993). I used to grow gourds.
+Gourd Seed (    ). I used to grow gourds.
 The connections are clear. I call them to arrange some
 sound-studio time during my visit to Santa Cruz. That ses-
 sion turns into a CD, which we call What Was Said to the
-Rose, and also a concert in Santa Cruz (April 2002). The
+Rose, and also a concert in Santa Cruz (April     ). The
 dance of courtship energies moving with the inner motions
 of meditation, let’s say that mystery is the station of love
 explored in this section. The close-in irritation and excite-
 ment of the erotic, stepping with the cleansing of going-in.
 The way we are led by dreams has been extremely
 important in my life. I have told the story elsewhere, sev-
-eral times, how I met my teacher in a dream on May 2,
-1977. I’ll tell it again: In my dream I am sleeping on the
+eral times, how I met my teacher in a dream on May  ,
+    . I’ll tell it again: In my dream I am sleeping on the
 bluff above the Tennessee River five miles north of Chat-
 tanooga where I grew up. I wake up inside the dream,
 though still asleep. A ball of light rises off Williams Island
@@ -3138,11 +3122,11 @@ dew as a mixing of love with world-matter. That was the
 dream, and the only credential I have for working with
 Rumi’s poetry. When I met the teacher in the dream, Bawa
 Muhaiyaddeen, a year and a half later in September of
-1978, he told me to continue the work on Rumi. “It has to
-be done.” Bawa died on December 8, 1986. I used to visit
+    , he told me to continue the work on Rumi. “It has to
+be done.” Bawa died on December  ,     . I used to visit
 the Fellowship in Philadelphia several times a year for three
 or four days, over those nine years. He never asked for
-140
+   
 money in exchange for the wisdom he gave so generously.
 The curry was free too. Food truly does taste better when
 it’s made by an enlightened being.
@@ -3151,9 +3135,9 @@ want one of these CDs that Barry and Shelley Phillips and I
 made (Irish, Appalachian, Shaker, and improvised music:
 cello, English horn, Irish harp, flute, with myself speaking
 Rumi poems, most of which are included in this volume),
-I’ll send you one free. Call 800-682-8637. Leave your name
+I’ll send you one free. Call    -   -    . Leave your name
 and address.
-141
+   
 R U L E S A B O U T R E S T R A I N T
 There is nourishment like bread
 that feeds one part of your life
@@ -3174,7 +3158,7 @@ with many variations as the answer
 to every question. If you want to
 live your soul, find a friend
 like Shams and stay near.
-142
+   
 T H E L O O K T H AT O P E N S
 We wait for inspiration and ask no fee,
 the feel of sacred ambiance being enough.
@@ -3196,14 +3180,14 @@ When it wants them back in the deep
 surge, it does with them
 as the wind does with grasses.
 This never ends.
-143
+   
 Friend, our closeness is this:
 anywhere you put your foot, feel me
 in the firmness under you.
 How is it with this love,
 I see your world and not you?
-144
-18. Love Dogs
+   
+  . Love Dogs
 The Sufis feel that dogs are our teachers with their faithful-
 ness, their humility, and their bounding, unqualified wel-
 come when we come home. The wordless intimacy of how
@@ -3223,7 +3207,7 @@ Let the beloved come and sit
 like a guard dog in front of the tent.
 When the ocean surges, don’t let me
 just hear it. Let it splash inside my chest!
-145
+   
 L O V E D O G S
 One night a man was crying Allah! Allah!
 His lips grew sweet with praising,
@@ -3232,7 +3216,7 @@ I have heard you calling out, but have you ever
 gotten any response?”
 The man had no answer to that.
 He quit praying and fell into a confused sleep.
-He dreamed he saw Khidr,38 the guide of souls,
+He dreamed he saw Khidr,   the guide of souls,
 in a thick, green foliage.
 “Why did you stop praising?” “Because
 I’ve never heard anything back.”
@@ -3249,7 +3233,7 @@ There are love dogs
 no one knows the names of.
 Give your life
 to be one of them.
-146
+   
 Inside water, a waterwheel turns.
 A star circulates with the moon.
 We live in this night ocean wondering,
@@ -3268,7 +3252,7 @@ In your presence I don’t want what I thought
 I wanted, those three little hanging lamps.
 Inside your face the ancient manuscripts
 seem like rusty mirrors.
-147
+   
 You breathe; new shapes appear,
 and the music of a desire as widespread
 as spring begins to move
@@ -3288,7 +3272,7 @@ can’t help but fly there. For us
 this day is friends sitting together
 with silence shining in our faces.”
 C O R E
-148
+   
 You’re song,
 a wished-for song.
 Go through the ear to the center
@@ -3301,8 +3285,8 @@ Keep walking, though there’s no place to get to.
 Don’t try to see through the distances.
 That’s not for human beings. Move within,
 but don’t move the way fear makes you move.
-149
-19. One Stroke Down
+   
+  . One Stroke Down
 We sense an impending danger in ecstatic love, that the
 experience will change us radically. And it’s true. The
 love-thief steals the keys to our favorite rooms, steals our
@@ -3317,11 +3301,11 @@ when consciousness breaks open and the Friendship is felt
 here and now. The ocean of wisdom becomes this weather we
 walk. Something like a jump occurs (though it may not be
 anything we do), and life is wildly different. You’re naked
-and cold. Hallaj39 says to dive in the river and get the fur
+and cold. Hallaj   says to dive in the river and get the fur
 coat that is floating by. You plunge in, and it’s a live bear!
 There’s the moment, a gamble one doesn’t know or care
 how it will turn out. This bear is going to wear you home.
-150
+   
 Lightning, your presence
 from ground to sky.
 No one knows what becomes of me,
@@ -3334,7 +3318,7 @@ The Friend comes into my body
 looking for the center, unable
 to find it, draws a blade,
 strikes anywhere.
-151
+   
 W O O D E N C A G E S
 I may be clapping my hands,
 but I don’t belong to a crowd of clappers.
@@ -3357,7 +3341,7 @@ full of shame. I borrow nothing.
 I don’t want anything from anybody.
 I flow through human beings.
 Love is my only companion.
-152
+   
 M O R E R A N G E
 We’re friends with one who kills us,
 who gives us to the ocean waves.
@@ -3380,7 +3364,7 @@ He handed the minister a glowing pearl.
 than a hundred donkeys could carry.”
 P E A R L
 “More gold
-153
+   
 “Break it!”
 “Sir, how could I waste your resources like that?”
 The king presented him with a robe of honor
@@ -3409,7 +3393,7 @@ as one thing.
 Don’t worry about forms. If someone
 wants your horse, let him have it. Horses are for
 hurrying ahead of others.
-154
+   
 The court assembly
 screamed at the recklessness of Ayaz. “How could you
 do that?”
@@ -3441,7 +3425,7 @@ thousand impressions from spirit are wanting to come
 through here.
 I feel stunned in this abundance,
 crushed and dead.
-155
+   
 H A L L A J
 Hallaj said what he said and went to the origin
 through the hole in the scaffold.
@@ -3466,8 +3450,8 @@ drifting with the current.
 has decided to wear me home!”
 A little part of a story, a hint.
 Do you need long sermons on Hallaj?
-156
-20. Love’s Excess
+   
+  . Love’s Excess
 Someone asked once, “What is love?”
 “Be lost in me,” I said. “You’ll know love when that happens.”
 Love has no calculating in it. That’s why it’s said to be a qual-
@@ -3490,7 +3474,7 @@ that is different from sunlight, and that is what the word
 enlightenment refers to. Those who experience these other
 sights and other hearings are often in a state of untranslat-
 able joy that almost dissolves them with its delight.
-157
+   
 It would be strange if poetry written from such know-
 ing were not excessive. Being in the spirit is not a casual
 thing. Each ant is given its elegant belt at birth. This love we feel
@@ -3500,11 +3484,11 @@ comes from a trance state. An enlightened being is most
 often very focused, present in the moment, and fiercely
 practical, even when saying the most mystical things. “You
 have to understand the form of the body in order to under-
-stand the meaning of the light form within it.”40
-And Rumi’s knowing, like his father Bahauddin’s,41 has
+stand the meaning of the light form within it.”  
+And Rumi’s knowing, like his father Bahauddin’s,   has
 many valences, which certainly includes the hulul, or mysti-
 cal trance.
-158
+   
 T H E S O U R C E O F J OY
 No one knows what makes the soul wake up
 so happy! Maybe a dawn breeze
@@ -3523,7 +3507,7 @@ and the tip of every hair makes music.
 Shams sails down clods of dirt
 from the roof, and we take jobs
 as doorkeepers for him.
-159
+   
 R O S E S U N D E R F O OT
 The sound of salaams rising as waves
 diminish down in prayer,
@@ -3544,7 +3528,7 @@ a huge rose, and roses under all our feet!
 How to say this to someone who denies it?
 The robe we wear is the sky’s cloth.
 Everything is soul and flowering.
-160
+   
 P O E T R Y
 I open and fill with love
 and what is not love evaporates.
@@ -3567,7 +3551,7 @@ in the arms of a lion. There is an excess in
 spiritual searching that is profound ignorance.
 Let that ignorance be our teacher!
 The Friend breathes into one who has no breath.
-161
+   
 A deep silence revives the listening
 of those two who meet on the riverbank.
 Like the ground turning green in a spring wind,
@@ -3591,7 +3575,7 @@ Look around this gathering
 and find those who resemble Shams,
 who made Tabriz a source
 of Eastern mystery like China.
-162
+   
 N O F L A G
 I used to want buyers for my words.
 Now I wish someone would buy me away from words.
@@ -3610,8 +3594,8 @@ A random image arrives. I scream,
 Only love.
 Only the holder the flag fits into,
 no flag.
-163
-21. Love’s Bewilderment
+   
+  . Love’s Bewilderment
 Love loves flowing, a beyond-containment of blood and
 semen, wine and riverwater, amniotic fluid and the round
 bead of dew forming.
@@ -3628,7 +3612,7 @@ turning away, I don’t think so. There is strong resistance and
 fear and academic distancing in the rational precincts,
 which tend to mistrust any boundary-dissolving, beauty-
 relishing, ecstatic honesty.
-164
+   
 God only knows, I don’t,
 what keeps me laughing.
 The stem of a flower
@@ -3641,7 +3625,7 @@ In complete control, pretending control,
 with dignified authority, we are charlatans.
 Or maybe just a goat’s-hair brush in a painter’s hand.
 We have no idea what we are.
-165
+   
 M O S E S A N D T H E S H E P H E R D
 Moses heard a shepherd on the road praying,
 “God,
@@ -3670,7 +3654,7 @@ You have separated me from one of my own.
 Did you come as a prophet to unite or to sever?
 I have given each being a separate and unique way
 of seeing and knowing and saying that knowledge.
-166
+   
 What seems wrong to you is right for him.
 What is poison to one is honey to someone else.
 Purity and impurity, sloth and diligence in worship,
@@ -3697,7 +3681,7 @@ The love-religion has no code or doctrine.
 Only God.
 So the ruby has nothing engraved on it!
 It doesn’t need markings.
-167
+   
 God began speaking
 deeper mysteries to Moses, vision and words,
 which cannot be recorded here. Moses left himself
@@ -3726,7 +3710,7 @@ is the truest devotion. Through you a whole world
 is freed.
 Loosen your tongue and don’t worry
 what comes out. It’s all the light of the spirit.”
-168
+   
 The shepherd replied, “Moses, Moses,
 I’ve gone beyond even that.
 You applied the whip,
@@ -3750,7 +3734,7 @@ I started looking for you, not knowing
 how blind that was.
 Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere.
 They’re in each other all along.
-169
+   
 M O R N I N G W I N D
 Wine so bitter all bitterness sweetens,
 a beautiful face growing old.
@@ -3778,7 +3762,7 @@ everything would freeze and be
 still. Instead,
 inorganic grains are entering
 plants. Plants enter animals;
-170
+   
 animals enter
 spirit, and spirit sacrifices itself
 for one breath
@@ -3806,7 +3790,7 @@ sand drifts.
 Changes do
 happen. I do not know how,
 or what remains of what
-171
+   
 has disappeared
 into the absolute.
 I hear so many stories
@@ -3816,8 +3800,8 @@ and because something I swallowed
 in the ocean
 has made me completely content
 with ignorance.
-172
-22. Lord of the Heart
+   
+  . Lord of the Heart
 Love is our aloneness with the lord of such beauty and
 depth that we’re not lonely. The empty space of the guest
 house, not the guests moving through, the host and theater
@@ -3844,20 +3828,20 @@ tery that this poetry tries to say. It began with the Friend-
 ship with Shams Tabriz. It is still unfolding, and as many of
 the poems imply, the unfolding is intimately woven in with
 seeing. John Ruskin says,
-173
+   
 The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to
 see something and tell what he saw in a plain way. To see
-clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion all in one.42
+clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion all in one.  
 Bawa says something very similar.
 Everything you see tells the story of God. Look at it. God is
 out spread, filling the entire universe. So look. You exist in a
 form. God is without form. You are the visible example, the
-sun. God is the light within the sun.43
+sun. God is the light within the sun.  
 I am so small I can barely be seen.
 How can this great love be inside me?
 Look at your eyes. They are small,
 but they see enormous things.
-174
+   
 E Y E S
 What is it that sees when vision is clear?
 The core that has no story, has that ever seen anything?
@@ -3881,7 +3865,7 @@ I am filled with you.
 Skin, blood, bone, brain, and soul.
 There’s no room for lack of trust, or trust.
 Nothing in this existence but that existence.
-175
+   
 When you feel your lips becoming infinite
 and sweet, like a moon in a sky,
 when you feel that spaciousness inside,
@@ -3907,7 +3891,7 @@ what to others would be epiphany. Much
 of our thought is of the past or the future.
 They’re free of those. Before a mine is dug,
 they judge coins. Before vineyards, they know
-176
+   
 the excitements to come. In July they feel
 December. In unbroken sunlight, they find
 shade. In fana, the state where objects
@@ -3930,7 +3914,7 @@ of the beauty that can’t be spoken. I’m like
 an ant that’s gotten into the granary,
 ludicrously happy, and trying to lug out
 a grain that’s way too big.
-177
+   
 T H E G A Z I N G - H O U S E
 On the night when you cross the street
 from your shop and your house to the cemetery,
@@ -3956,7 +3940,7 @@ Beat the drum and let
 the poets speak. This is a day of purification
 for those who are already mature and initiated
 into what love is.
-178
+   
 No need to wait until we die!
 There’s more to want here than money and being
 famous and bites of roasted meat.
@@ -3981,7 +3965,7 @@ for some new delight.
 The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
 meet them at the door laughing
 and invite them in.
-179
+   
 Be grateful for whoever comes,
 because each has been sent
 as a guide from beyond.
@@ -3991,7 +3975,7 @@ Copper doesn’t know it’s copper,
 until it’s changing to gold.
 Your loving doesn’t know majesty,
 until it knows its helplessness.
-180
+   
 T H E O N E T H I N G YO U M U S T D O
 There is one thing in this world you must never
 forget to do. If you forget everything else and not
@@ -4023,7 +4007,7 @@ you don’t, you’ll be like the man who takes a cere-
 monial dagger and hammers it into a post for a peg
 to hold his dipper gourd. You’ll be wasting valuable
 keenness and forgetting your dignity and purpose.
-181
+   
 T H I S W E H A V E N O W
 This we have now
 is not imagination.