LISTENING
what is the deep listening?
Sama is a greeting from the secret ones
inside the heart,
a letter
the branches of your intelligence
grow new leaves in the wind of this listening
the body reaches a peace
rooster sound comes,
reminding you of your love for dawn
the reed flute and the singer's lips:
the reed flute and the singer's lips:
the knack of how spirit breathes into us
becomes as simple and ordinary
as eating and drinking
the dead rise
with the pleasure of listening
if someone can't hear a trumpet melody,
sprinkle dirt on his head
and declare him
dead
listen,
and feel the beauty
of your separation,
the unsayable absence
there's a moon
inside every human being
learn to be companions with it
learn to be companions with it
give more of your life
to this listening
as brightness is to time,
so you are
to the one who talks
to the deep ear in your heart
I should sell my tongue
and buy a thousand ears
when that one steps near
and begins to speak.
— Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207-1273)
translated by Coleman Barks
Viking Penguin, NY (1999)
translated by Coleman Barks
Viking Penguin, NY (1999)
I first discovered “Listening” in the book by Kim Rosen called Saved by a Poem. For a real treat click on this YouTube video to hear Rosen recite this poem. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nw92IykIuhU
The poem below is in a book called Poetic Medicine by John Fox. Fox goes into hospitals and works with patients to write poetry. The amazing therapeutic value of this is documented in the PBS video Healing Words. Loretta and I are attending a workshop in Cleveland on May 6 and 7 in which John will be demonstrating how he uses poetry as a catalyst for people to express themselves. We are really looking forward to this.
Note the age of the boy who wrote “Waiting in Line.” I think it is a good companion piece for a poem by the consummate poet Rumi, a 13th century Sufi mystic.
Waiting in Line
When you listen you reach
into dark corners and
pull out your wonders.
When you listen your
ideas come in and out
like they are waiting in line.
Your ears don’t always listen.
It can be your brain, your
fingers, your toes.
You can listen anywhere.
Your mind might not want to go.
If you can listen you can find
answers to questions you didn’t know.
If you have listened, truly
listened, you don’t find your
self alone.
~Nick Penna, fifth grade
from Poetic Medicine, Penguin Putnam Inc. 1997
by John Fox
5 comments:
Nick Penna's poem is a beautiful prayer. It is amazing how clear and accurate a child's mind can be when it learns to listen. Penna's words are so close to his heart that there seeems to be little separation between the mind and the heart.
It will be fun to be with John Fox over the week end.
Loretta
Two beautiful pieces here.
Two comments.
For Jalal al-Din Rumi's "Listening" I'll just say this about the "Reminding you of your love for dawn" line. Dawn reminds me of the love I have for my bed.
As for Nick Penna's "Waiting in Line," I don't know whether or not her lines were edited by an adult, for her piece has a beautiful rhythm, but it looks like we have a poet in the making here.
Somehow in my head Nick Penna was a girl. I thought Nick ... Nicole. But when I read Loretta's comments, I thought I might I have behaved like a sexist Miss Piggy. Have I? All I can say for my defense is that gender has no role in good writing. So Nicole or Nicolas, this is a hell of a good poem.
In my mind, Nick has the soul of a poet. The poet has a relationship with the world and with the self. When we begin to put words together to say what we are thinking, we grow in spirit, soul, and body.
I know that I am always impressed by one or two poems that my students write each year. This discussion reminds me of the poem on Kim Rosen's CD, Saved by a Poem. I think I will post it right now.
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