Friday, February 08, 2008

Spiritual Windowshoppers -- A Poem by Rumi

These spiritual windowshoppers,

who idly ask, 'How much is that?' Oh, I'm just looking.

They handle a hundred items and put them down,

shadows with no capital.

What is spent is love, and two eyes wet with weeping.

But these walk into a shop,

and their whole lives pass suddenly in that moment,

in that shop.

Where did you go? "Nowhere."

What did you have to eat? "Nothing much."

Even if you don't know what you want,

buy something, to be part of the exchanging flow.

Start a huge, foolish project, like Noah.

It makes absolutely no difference what people think of you.

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By Jalaluddin Rumi, from the Divani Shamsi Tabrizi, version by Coleman Barks, From "Rumi: Like This"

© Copyright 2008 Robert Wilkinson

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