Excerpts from a Sufi Poem, a Psalm, a Gospel

Brave in That Holy War*

You have done well
In the contest of madness.
You were brave in that holy war.
You have all the honorable wounds

Of one who has tried to find love
Where the Beautiful Bird

Does not drink.

...
Wayfarer,

Why not rest your tired body?

Lean back and close your eyes.
Come morning

God will kneel beside you and feed you.

He will so gently

Let you taste something of

The sacred mind and life.
O, surely there is something wrong

With your ideas of

God

If you think

Our Beloved would not be so
Tender.

Psalm 90
Lord, you have been our dwelling place

in all generations.

Before the mountains were born,

Or You gave birth to

the Earth and the world,

Even from everlasting to everlasting,

You are God.

...
As for the days of our lives,

they contain seventy years,

Or if due to strength, eighty years,

Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow;

For soon it is gone and we fly away.
So teach us to number our days,

That we may [gain and ] present to you

a heart of wisdom.

...
And let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us...
 
Matthew 11:28-35

Come to me

all who are weary and heavy laden,

and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you

and learn from Me,

for I am gentle and humble in heart.

And you shall find rest for your soul,

for My yoke is easy and My load is light.

* from The Gift, Poems by Hafiz, as rendered by Daniel Ladinsky (1999)