If the Falling of a Hoof

An ode to Hafiz, that rascal poet, written July 7th, 2022

If the falling of a hoof
Ever rings the temple bells,

If a lonely man's final scream
Before he hangs himself

And the nightingale's perfect lyric
Of happiness
All become an equal cause to dance,

The Sun has at last parted
Its curtain before you -

God has stopped playing child's games
With your mind
and dragged you backstage by
The hair,

Shown to you the only possible
Reason

For this bizarre and spectacular
Existence.

Go running through the streets
Creating divine chaos,

Make everyone and yourself ecstatically mad
For the Friend's beautiful open arms.

Go running through this world
Giving love, giving love,

If the falling of a hoof upon this earth
Ever rings the 
Temple 
Bell.

- Hafiz

I love these lines: “Go running through the streets/ Creating divine chaos/ Make everyone and yourself ecstatically mad/ For the Friend's beautiful open arms./ Go running through this world./ Giving love, giving love.” It reminds me of “Zorba the Greek,” who is basically on a mission to create divine chaos. On the back of Hafiz’s book, someone calls him a rascal. I love that word. It’s so true! He is a rascal, and when one is truly interwoven with the essence of life and God, it’s hard not to be. There is so much joy bubbling up from beneath the veil we so often use to separate ourselves from the Majesty. Without that veil, nothing but ecstasy remains. To feel that state of ecstasy without the use of drugs, simply by dancing… Now that, I would love.

When it comes to
Eating the Strawberry, 
Dancing is important. 

Whirling, and singing,
Laughing in divine song. 

For, there is always a tune 
Riding through
The currents of our world,

Pulsing with the greatest Bass
We have ever heard. 

That is the tune
We should learn
To love.

It’s love to channel the way Hafiz writes because he writes as I do, without writing, and with surrendering to the words that are already there on the page, invisible, waiting to be written. I am not writing these words, the words are using me to inscribe them on the infinity of space between now and now. What is the mystery of being when compared to the history of mystery?

Short paragraphs chock full of delicacies. Now that could be the way to go. Perhaps Eating the Strawberry shall be a book of poetry and short, very short stories, instead of a memoir. There are no rules in writing. What is written has already come and will certainly come again. The gift then, is not in the words, but in the sculpting of the journey from word 1 to word infinity. In the endless space that is created awaits the teacher.

Has the sun ever kissed you
Tenderly 
As it says good morning!!

When beyond the veil
It rises
You are the gifted

Where would I go if the world were all open to me? A question pulled from unconscious. The world is all open to me, and I can go anywhere. The only place to go is here, for here is where the light is rising and the sun is hot. Here is where the peace exists and the cicadas sing. Here is the only place I can be, even in a world that is all open to me.

The sails of a great ship
Carried in the wind
Blown from the mouth
Of God

Arrives just on time
In the port of our lady
To leave gifts
Of Fruit and Tender Loving

Teeth should sink
In juicy peaches
And drips roll down
A cheek

Lush fruit is
Bursting
For each
To sip
To Taste
To Eat

Eating the strawberry isn’t about achieving something, not that achieving something is mutually exclusive with ETS. It’s more about letting Something achieve you. It’s not controlling, and it’s not quite being controlled, but it is being danced like a puppet by the string held by God. It is letting the River of Love carry you where you're meant to be. How nice it is to dance with God and float on The River. What a joyous occasion!

Wings of Love
Merge with the sky
To carry you beyond

Where whippoorwills
Play wild songs

You shall dance among
The angels

Grab a hand
Sing your tune
Don’t hold it trapped
Inside

Your song is that of
God

Don’t deprive us
Of your tune

We long to dance,
To sing,|
To live
Along.

When the gifts inside us are kept hidden, we cannot Eat the Strawberry, for we cannot remember how to eat. When we do not sing, we cannot hear, for we haven’t made a fair deal. So, sing, and dance, and give it all, and then you will taste the sweet juice of God’s Love for you as it jumps and spins upon your tongue.

The word of God
Plays a melody

Dance to it
All night long

Life will spring
From the Earth
In tidal waves
Of song

The word of God is always on our tongues. It is up to us to speak it, share it, live it, love it. When we hold it in, we do not let ourselves sing with Divine accompaniment, and what better backup singer is there than God?

Do not hold back the Song
From reaching your ears
For fear of losing yourself

Losing yourself
Is the Goal!

As you drift into
One-ness

You shan’t need
A name
Other than
God

We often are afraid to let ourselves truly merge with the essence of Life, with God, with Love because by doing so, we are exposed to the infinite, and what are we in the face of that Majesty? When we are scared of it, it is grand, and we are insignificant. But, when we welcome ourselves into the Divine Dance, we are re-named to “God.” I quite like the name God on you; It is becoming.

There is no Ego
In letting God be you

Does the bird worry
If its song is too sweet?

Does the jackal
Worry it is not
Laughing right?

Why should you doubt
That you are just
As you are
Meant to be

When God is
All there is?