The following haiku could be ‘digested’ separately or as a related series. They are responses to Rumi’s call: “…don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth, without complicated explanation, so everyone will understand the passage, we have opened you.” Rumi’s full poem “Unfold your own Myth”, feature of Carpe Diem #1396, is reproduced following my three haiku.
on a summer night
swinging over Buckhorn Lake
flying to the moon
~
sheltered by sand dunes
serenading the wind
alone on the shore
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candle flame flickers
words scribble on paper
in the dying light
©2018 Ontheland
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“Who gets up early to discover the moment light begins?
Who finds us here circling, bewildered, like atoms?
Who comes to a spring thirsty
and sees the moon reflected in it?
Who, like Jacob, blind with grief and age,
smells the shirt of his son and can see again?
Who lets a bucket down
and brings up a flowing prophet?
Or like Moses goes for fire
and finds what burns inside the sunrise?
Jesus slips into a house to escape enemies,
and opens a door to the other world.
Solomon cuts open a fish, and there’s a gold ring.
Omar storms in to kill the prophet
and leaves with blessings.
Chase a deer and end up everywhere!
An oyster opens his mouth to swallow one drop.
Now there’s a pearl.
A vagrant wanders empty ruins
Suddenly he’s wealthy.
But don’t be satisfied with stories,
how things have gone with others.
Unfold your own myth,
without complicated explanation,
so everyone will understand the passage,
We have opened you.
Start walking towards Shams.
Your legs will get heavy and tired.
Then comes a moment of feeling the wings you’ve grown, lifting.”
Jelaluddin Rumi (translated by Coleman Barks)
**Photo sourced from Pixabay’s public collection, tagged “swing”
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