The Size of the Love-Bruise
The gauge of a good poem is…the size of the love-bruise it leaves on your neck.
Or the size of the love-bruise it tattoos on your brain.
Or the size of the love-lump it can weave into your soul.
Or, indeed, it could be all of the above, why not?
Welcome! Several years ago my father brought home a poster from the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival with this verse on it: “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet you there". Thus began his and my love affair with the great Sufi poet, Rumi. From there I began reading other Persian poets, Attar, Saadi, and Hafiz. My daily blog will explore poems and quotes from Hafiz, whose poetry was influenced by the aforementioned Sufi poets. In time, I hope this blog will also record my life and serve as a memo to the world.
Hafiz brought his followers to a whole new level of consciousness through using Love as a catalyst for his spiritual journey. His poems expressed every nuance and stage of his growing understanding of love. He wrote of the game of love, the beauty of the Beloved, the sweet pain of longing, the agony of waiting, the ecstatic joy of union. He explored different forms and levels of love: his delight in nature’s beauty, his romantic courtship of that ideal unattainable girl, his sweet affection for his wife, his tender feelings for his child, and his terrible grief and loneliness when, later in his life, both his wife and son passed away. He wrote of his relationship with his teacher and his adoration of God. In Persian, Hafiz is sometimes called the Tongue of the Invisible, for so many of his poems seem to be ecstatic and beautiful love songs from God to His beloved world.
Love is the wholly universal invisible thread. Love is a Truth of the human experience, something we all relate to. Hafiz continues to relate to all those who read his poetry, as they associate it with their own most cherished experiences of love. Hafiz’s poems leave a mark on their readers and it is why I have chosen his own summation of what makes a quality poem as my first entry. To my readers, I hope to share my love of romancing the beautiful, the unusual, and the joyful. I hope to leave a love-bruise.
The gauge of a good poem is…the size of the love-bruise it leaves on your neck.
Or the size of the love-bruise it tattoos on your brain.
Or the size of the love-lump it can weave into your soul.
Or, indeed, it could be all of the above, why not?
Welcome! Several years ago my father brought home a poster from the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival with this verse on it: “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet you there". Thus began his and my love affair with the great Sufi poet, Rumi. From there I began reading other Persian poets, Attar, Saadi, and Hafiz. My daily blog will explore poems and quotes from Hafiz, whose poetry was influenced by the aforementioned Sufi poets. In time, I hope this blog will also record my life and serve as a memo to the world.
Hafiz brought his followers to a whole new level of consciousness through using Love as a catalyst for his spiritual journey. His poems expressed every nuance and stage of his growing understanding of love. He wrote of the game of love, the beauty of the Beloved, the sweet pain of longing, the agony of waiting, the ecstatic joy of union. He explored different forms and levels of love: his delight in nature’s beauty, his romantic courtship of that ideal unattainable girl, his sweet affection for his wife, his tender feelings for his child, and his terrible grief and loneliness when, later in his life, both his wife and son passed away. He wrote of his relationship with his teacher and his adoration of God. In Persian, Hafiz is sometimes called the Tongue of the Invisible, for so many of his poems seem to be ecstatic and beautiful love songs from God to His beloved world.
Love is the wholly universal invisible thread. Love is a Truth of the human experience, something we all relate to. Hafiz continues to relate to all those who read his poetry, as they associate it with their own most cherished experiences of love. Hafiz’s poems leave a mark on their readers and it is why I have chosen his own summation of what makes a quality poem as my first entry. To my readers, I hope to share my love of romancing the beautiful, the unusual, and the joyful. I hope to leave a love-bruise.
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