Adam Stood in the World

Adam stood in the world
as tall as the trees

the sun bathing his body
birds wreathing his outline with

birdsong
waters everywhere splashing

growls and grandeur of new animals
ache of new growths everywhere

sounding

Alone he stood with a
hunger in his heart reaching out to

touch the edible nothingness
around him

His own essence before his
birth in Allah’s domain

nourished on Light and the Names he’ll
name creation with

to keep each radiant thing linked to
Allah’s single simultaneous

action in the unseen

each kind of leaf made consciousness
each cloud in passing also conscious

each Adam-named element
dimensionalizing the world

and the angels

all on prophet Adam’s
fasting tongue

articulating even
now if we bend in

close to our hearts to hear
that original

soft sound

8/3/2011 / 3 Ramadan (from Ramadan is Burnished Sunlight)

Ecstatic Exchange