Good evening. Welcome to Dk Poetry Slam/Open Mic. Thank you for coming! Pick
out a table or sit on the floor, come up to the mic & speak your piece.
Don't be shy.
Last week I discovered, via
KALW, a cd of poems put to music
ti
tled 'strange conversation', by kris delmhorst. I just got it last nite & it really rocks!
Transcendent in every sense, Strange Conversation bridges literary
periods, forms, and musical genres to create an original album truly greater
than the sum of its parts, a joyful collection of songs that revels in the
interplay of language and melody. The poems - some many centuries old - feel
immediate and accessible because they speak to what it is to be alive and human,
questions addressed through poetry and song from time immemorial.
As always, feel free to post poems, play scenes and short short stories. Your
own work or the works of others
I will open with
Rumi
which I found at
this
Gurdjief site. A veritable Rumi PSlam! I don't know who gave it the title.
It's not the same Rumi poem played on the cd. I chose it because it seems
so
modern, as if it were written today!
THE PHRASING MUST CHANGE
by Jalal Al-Din Rumi
Learn about your inner self from those who know such things,
but don't repeat verbatim what they say.
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 different phrases, the inner meanings
known only to her. When she said, The wax is softening
near the fire, she meant, My love is wanting me.
Or if she said, Look, the moon is up or The willow has new leaves
or The branches are trembling or The coriander seeds
have caught fire or The roses are opening
or The king is in a good mood today or Isn't that lucky?
or The furniture needs dusting or
The water carrier is here or It's almost daylight or
These vegetables are perfect or The bread needs more salt
or The clouds seem to be moving against the wind
or My head hurts or My headache's better,
anything she praises, it's Joseph's touch she means,
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. Sensual people use the holy names
often, but they don't work for them.
The miracle Jesus did by being the name of God,
Zuleikha felt in the name of Joseph.
When one is united to the core of another, to speak of that
is to breathe the name Hu, empty of self and filled
with love. As the saying goes, The pot drips what is in it.
The saffron spice of connecting, laughter.
The onion smell of separation, crying.
Others have many things and people they love.
This is not the way of Friend and friend.