A Cup Overflowing

Love is a cup overflowing
Yet without bottom

How is this possible?
Where does all this joy come from?

Does love have no beginning,
No middle, no end?

Praise God! It must be so!
The cause and course of life

A treasure lent to spirit
His light formed in earthen clay

The true meaning of
Every verse of every Holy Book

And the hidden name of God
On King Solomon’s ring,

That the Jinn, created by the
Fire of that Love, could not disobey

Bless us then with Love, O Lord!
As Thy Name is praised

Make of it our garment
Clothe us in Thy ways

That with each breath may flow
The prayer of all our days

And bless the ink and pen
That writes these words

The eyes that read them
And the heart that knows

- Irving Karchmar, January 2009

Answered Prayers

The knowledge of You
Comes swift as light
To sit within the circle
Of zekr and gratitude
A presence felt in darkness
The soul’s delight

The knowledge of You
My bones remember
My blood, nerves, sinews
And my eyes, this poet’s sight
That writes only You, who
Are pen and ink and paper

You are love and turmoil
Hope and answered prayers
Fathomless as oceans
Encompassing as night
My heart’s rest as winter comes
And all the leaves take flight.

- Irving Karchmar, October 2007