When no longer my ‘I’ is raging

Each time I try to make myself bigger, I get tinier;
Each time I want to make up for lost time, I lose it;
Each moment I delay embracing Eternity, I fall backwards;
Each morsel of life that I wish to rip and chew fattens only my ego.
Releasing my soul to the Soul and my heart to the Heart,
My will returns to the Will which first willed it to be;
And then when no longer my ‘I’ is raging, I find All resting quietly in me.

- Mignon Fahr

Mystic Heart – The 3rd Sufi Poetry Carnival!!!

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

God hath treasures beneath the Throne,
the keys whereof are the tongues of poets.
- a saying of the Prophet (pbuh)

Alhamdulillah!

Welcome to the 3rd Annual Sufi Poetry Carnival, co-hosted by our brother Sadiq of the highly acclaimed Technology of the Heart blog.

The Carnival will run from April 7th to April 30th, during National Poetry Month in the US, and will be posted on our blogs on May 7th, inshallah.  The Sufi theme this year is:

The Mystic Heart

If you have a blog or website, you can submit a direct link of your poem. If you don’t have a blog or website, you can email your submission to the address below, with the subject line:  Sufi Poetry Carnival

All May Enter: We are all spiritual beings having a human experience,  so may submit their poetry, whether a Sufi or not, as long as the poetry is in English and the Mystic Heart theme is followed.

Send your links and entries to me at: Irvingk1945@gmail.com

And please send a duplicate copy to Sadiq at mysticsaint@gmail.com

We will then each post a selection of the poems chosen :)

In your light I learn how to love,
in your beauty, how to make poems.
You dance inside my chest where no-one sees you,
but sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art.
- Rumi

 

Ya Haqq!

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

One Breath

From pre-eternity to post-eternity
is but a single breath,
A breath free of all these melodies
high and low.

Treasure this breath,
this moment you now enjoy.
Spend it in happiness: there is
no time for sorrow.

Once this moment has passed,
it is gone forever.
Your time is less
than the very least you can imagine.

If you spend this moment laughing,
the world will be all laughter.
But if you fall into depression,
the world will be all sorrow.

Don’t give your heart to this unstable
transitory world
With all its ups and downs,
its twists and turns.

Lighten another’s heart;
be light of heart yourself,
For the highest gain in the world
is this.

Take care, Nurbakhsh,
not to hurt any heart,
For this is more valuable
than any crown or throne.

- Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh (1926 – 2008), from Vol. 46, Sufi Journal.

Ya Haqq!

You

You are my first thought
In morning light

You are my last thought
In the dark of night

With every action
“Bismillah!”

With every goodness
“Alhamdulillah!”

You are the laughter
On my child’s face

You are the moon and stars
Of the upward glance

You are the pain and cure
Of every ailment

No joy but You
No hope but You

And in the end
“La illaha illAllah!”
No I but You.

- Irving Karchmar, April 2007

The Breath of Zekr

The breath of zekr inhales love
and exhales kindness

The heartbeat keeps time
to the rhythm of intention

Steady the breath with silence
and good works

Listen to the heart beat
La illa ha ill Allah!

O seeker, the traveler on this path
takes no provisions but love

- Irving Karchmar, 2006

The Song of Love

Hear, O darvish, the song of Love
the unending tale of the heart.
God whispers “Be!” and infinity
takes eternal flight.
Love commands the darkness to depart,
and the world to arise in light.
Mountains, seas and stars bear witness,
The east wind cries out on the wing.
La Illaha illa Allah,
O Sufi, the universe sings.

From Master of the Jinn: A Sufi Novel