Poem 226 – Float

Float

Inspired by ‘Float on your Back A While’ pg. 35, The Purity of Desire 100 Poems of Rumi, translated by Daniel Ladinksy with Nancy Owen Barton

I go to Rumi for guidance
gather his words over my heart
pushing faith through my skin
beseech him –

Tell me, friend, how do I live this poet life?

Float on your back a while,
he tells me through the softly parted lips
of his humble smile

How did he know? My bags are packed
for the beach! My spine is waiting to
expand on the warm water-top of Lake Huron
the stars are so in need of my gaze
I see them dazzling in the day-blue sky

I feel the edge of his laughter lift
my flesh into a whitecap-wave of chills

Have fun, he coos, poetry is for joy too,
for sand in toes, for screaming under water,
for trusting that every thing is alive
to hold you