Category Archives: ABDAL-HAYY’S POETRY

Poem: Touchstone

Posted on June 10, 2013 by

The touchstone hereis any who hears theName of Allahturns to goldor in the case of the hearta river A sapling becomes atree in an instantthe eyea seer centuries oldor in the case of the greedya giver He suffices for all … Continue reading →

Posted in ABDAL-HAYY'S POETRY, amazement, ISLAM/SUFISM, Light, Love of God, Muslim Poetry, POEMS, POETRY, signs of allah, Sufi Poetry | 1 Comment

Poem: Returning from a Marvelous Journey

Posted on June 5, 2013 by

I’ve got a window up my sleeve    and a door in my shirtI can open any time to walk    out into the blue. Arch my      arm and seemeadows, sunbursts, vistas.Pantaloons of mileage, shoes of market silver,windy hair from lunar rocky … Continue reading →

Posted in ABDAL-HAYY'S POETRY, amazement, heaven and earth, ISLAM/SUFISM, Light, Love, Love of God, Miracles, Muslim Poetry, POEMS, POETRY, signs of allah, Space, Sufi Poetry | 1 Comment

Poem: Establishing Enthusiasm

[NOTE: This is a poem from the great late Mexican poet (1935-2009) Marco Antonio Montes de Oca, whom I met and learned so much from on my first extended visit to Mexico in the early 1960s, at the ripe age … Continue reading →

Aside | Posted on May 27, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Habibiyya Diwan Song / Poem

Posted on May 23, 2013 by

The song, Nahnu fee Rawdati, from the Diwan of Shaykh ibn al-Habib, raheemullah, sung at a conference in Chicago in the year 2000. This is followed by the poem (full text below) written the night before, here read but incompletely … Continue reading →

Posted in ABDAL-HAYY'S POETRY, Diwan Song, Habibiyya, ISLAM/SUFISM, Light, Love, Love of God, Mawlid Poem, Nahnu fee rawdati, POEMS, POETRY, Sufi Poetry | 2 Comments

Poem: Tell All the Truth/Heart to Heart in Death’s Rumble

Posted on May 20, 2013 by

(drawing by the author, 5/19/13) (Another Ars Poetica, from a great practitioner) TELL ALL THE TRUTH Tell all the truth but tell it slant, Success in circuit lies, Too bright for our infirm delight The truth’s superb surprise; As lightning … Continue reading →

Posted in ABDAL-HAYY'S POETRY, ISLAM/SUFISM, Muslim Poetry, POEMS, POETRY | 1 Comment

Poem: When I Pray

Posted on May 16, 2013 by

When I pray the whole world becomes a pair of huge insect wings behind me, and I am a standing green insect with metallic thorax, inhaling distant zephyrs of intoxicating gas only a rare breed of insect can survive, and … Continue reading →

Posted in ABDAL-HAYY'S POETRY, amazement, ISLAM/SUFISM, Love of God, Muslim Prayer, POEMS, POETRY, Prayer, Sufi Poetry, The Path | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Poems: Reflection / The White Deer

Posted on May 13, 2013 by

(Note: I’ve been invited to present a series of eight sessions on poetry, I’m calling The Ecstatic Exchange Seminars on Poetry: Intuitions & Enthusiasms. As a foundational text, I’m using this song from the Diwan of Shaykh ibn al-Habib (raheemullah), … Continue reading →

Posted in ABDAL-HAYY'S POETRY, amazement, ISLAM/SUFISM, Light, Love of God, Muslim Poetry, POEMS, POETRY, signs of allah, stars and the moon, Sufi Poetry, The Path | 3 Comments

Poem: Talk

Posted on April 15, 2013 by

(Note: This poem posted after a longish hiatus in postings, due to travel to California to see daughter and husband and their daughter, and read at the 2013 Sufi Symposium, and to Switzerland to see son and wife and their … Continue reading →

Posted in ABDAL-HAYY'S POETRY, cancer treatment, gratitude, ISLAM/SUFISM, Light, Love, Muslim Poetry, POEMS, POETRY, roses, signs of allah, The Soul | 4 Comments

Poem: The Perfect Moon-Faced One

Posted on February 14, 2013 by

The perfect moon-faced one appears with perfect lips and bow-like eyebrows. His hair is braided behind his ears and this pure appearance of his arouses our trust that unity will thrive and we’ll be taken to One Presence now that … Continue reading →

Posted in ABDAL-HAYY'S POETRY, amazement, ISLAM/SUFISM, Love of God, Mawlid Poem, Muslim Poetry, POEMS, POETRY, Praise of Prophet, Prophet Muhammad, signs of allah, Sufi Poetry, The Prophet | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

POEM: Robinson Crusoe Dips His Foot

Posted on February 12, 2013 by

Robinson Crusoe dips his foot in the river checking for piranhas watches the grasses of the glade checking for vipers squats in the tallest tree branches checking for cougars barely relaxes at twilight or dawn cocking his ears at every … Continue reading →

Posted in ABDAL-HAYY'S POETRY, amazement, ISLAM/SUFISM, Light, Muslim Poetry, POEMS, POETRY, signs of allah, Sufi Poetry, The Path | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Poem: These Faces of Ours

Posted on December 22, 2012 by

(Note: Just back from neck surgery, to zip out the last remnant of lymphatic cancer cells if they lurked, and we prayed, the surgeons and me, before — and the head surgeon, well beloved and an expert, reported to my … Continue reading →

Posted in ABDAL-HAYY'S POETRY, amazement, faces, Light, Love, Love of God, Muslim Poetry, people, POEMS, POETRY, saints, signs of allah, Sufi Poetry, The Soul | Tagged | 1 Comment

Poem: All the Dead Children

Posted on December 15, 2012 by

(Note: In 2003 this poem was written for all the dead children from our recent [and present] wars, for those children lost in Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon… But today we have just lost [and continue to lose] young innocent lives in … Continue reading →

Posted in ABDAL-HAYY'S POETRY, angels, dead children, ISLAM/SUFISM, POEMS, POETRY, Sandy Hook School, Sufi Poetry | 2 Comments

Life of Pi, note and poem

LIFE OF PI the Movie Just back from seeing The Life of Pi, in 3D, overwhelmed by it, and for me a truly cathartic experience. In it we are face to face with, well, in a metaphorical sense, in not … Continue reading →

Aside | Posted on December 13, 2012 by | Tagged | 3 Comments

Poem: Compassionate Zone

Posted on December 12, 2012 by

Streaks of color in the sky — can it be the blood of angels? The sky itself — can it be the breath of God? In the underbrush a noise — a something’s there cleaning house? The four or five … Continue reading →

Posted in ABDAL-HAYY'S POETRY, amazement, gratitude, ISLAM/SUFISM, Light, Love, Love of God, POEMS, POETRY, signs of allah, Sufi Poetry | 3 Comments

Poem: 43 / His Most Precious Concern

Posted on October 25, 2012 by

(Note: This poem from my “Treatment” series, in honor of the ‘Eid al-Kabir, celebrated soon all over the world, and the salat-an-Nabi billion-believer recitation after Maghreb Prayer on Sunday, November 4, insha’Allah, and personally, it seems, the emergence from cancer … Continue reading →

Posted in ABDAL-HAYY'S POETRY, cancer treatment, ISLAM/SUFISM, Love of God, Muslim Poetry, POEMS, POETRY, Sufi Poetry, The Prophet, The Soul | 5 Comments

Poem: 31 / What Fire Prevented

Posted on September 11, 2012 by

This narrative poem was written in hospital during a chemo session, contemplating God’s sending a perceived “calamity” that might be, in fact, heading off a worse one. Gratitude for every state we find ourselves in, in every condition, is the … Continue reading →

Posted in ABDAL-HAYY'S POETRY, angels, cancer treatment, circus, elephants, gratitude, ISLAM/SUFISM, POEMS, POETRY, signs of allah, Sufi Poetry | 1 Comment

Poem: 45 / All Our Attempts at Healing

Posted on September 10, 2012 by

“There’s a cure for everything but death” — Hadith of the Prophet (salla ‘llahu alayhi wa sallam) All our attempts at healing are to elude the long loving arms of death coming around us The doorway filling with a sulfurous … Continue reading →

Posted in ABDAL-HAYY'S POETRY, cancer treatment, Death, gratitude, ISLAM/SUFISM, Light, Love, Love of God, POEMS, POETRY, signs of allah, Sufi Poetry | 1 Comment

A wali’s passing and poem

Posted on September 2, 2012 by

(photo:copyright © Peter Sanders) A couple of days ago a great wali (saint) of the Moroccan desert died, at a very advanced age, I believe well over 100 years old, a faqir of Sayyedina Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib, rahimahu ‘llah, … Continue reading →

Posted in ABDAL-HAYY'S POETRY, ISLAM/SUFISM, Light, Love, Love of God, Muslim Poetry, POEMS, POETRY, saints, Sufi Poetry | 7 Comments

Poem: 32 / Cancer

Posted on August 27, 2012 by

Cancer creeps in on little cat’s feet Cancer grows from the root upward Cancer as a fact is a hard fact to grasp Cancer wears no mask but hides in private places Cancer greedily drinks at the oasis meant for … Continue reading →

Posted in ABDAL-HAYY'S POETRY, cancer treatment, ISLAM/SUFISM, POEMS, POETRY, Sufi Poetry | 2 Comments

Note and Soul Questions

Posted on August 21, 2012 by

Note to Readers: Alhamdulillah, God be praised, that during this blessed month of Ramadan (and ‘Eid Mubarak!), I’ve completed my treatment and spent the time, while most Muslims have been not eating, trying and sometimes forcing myself to eat! The … Continue reading →

Posted in ABDAL-HAYY'S POETRY, cancer treatment, ISLAM/SUFISM, Light, Love of God, POEMS, POETRY, Sufi Poetry, The Soul | 3 Comments