Category Archives: Light

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

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: 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: 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: 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

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

Poem: 26 / The Soul

Posted on July 13, 2012 by

The soul is a flowering peach tree blooming on a bright green hill The scale of a dragon fallen into the Princess’ goblet turning water into the most effluvious Paradisiacal wine one sniff of which up our nostrils turns our … Continue reading →

Posted in ABDAL-HAYY'S POETRY, amazement, cancer treatment, gratitude, ISLAM/SUFISM, Light, Love, Love of God, Muslim Poetry, POEMS, POETRY, signs of allah, stars and the moon, Sufi Poetry, The Soul | 4 Comments

Poem: 25 / The Rowers

Posted on July 10, 2012 by

The rowers of the big boats had no letup The trapeze artist has to catch his mate for once in midair it’s too late to be elsewhere A mortal born must go on until there’s no more going on then … Continue reading →

Posted in ABDAL-HAYY'S POETRY, circus, Death, ISLAM/SUFISM, Light, Love of God, Muslim Poetry, POEMS, POETRY, saints, Space, Sufi Poetry | 1 Comment

Poem: 23 / Falling

Posted on July 7, 2012 by

If a body starts to fall and there’s nothing to stop it falling how long will it fall and through how many worlds? The visions of our hearts pass in a whooshing whirl The sounds in our ears of every … Continue reading →

Posted in ABDAL-HAYY'S POETRY, amazement, Death, heaven and earth, ISLAM/SUFISM, Light, Love of God, Muslim Poetry, POEMS, POETRY, Sufi Poetry, The Prophet | 1 Comment

Poem: 22 / Job Sits in His Chair

Posted on July 6, 2012 by

Job sits in his chair of molten lead Walks on a beach of burning sand speaks words that blister the air sings a soft song that his heart can hear Finds his closest companion just a jugular vein away Holds … Continue reading →

Posted in ABDAL-HAYY'S POETRY, cancer treatment, fana fillah, ISLAM/SUFISM, Job the prophet of Allah, Light, Muslim Poetry, POEMS, POETRY, Sufi Poetry | Leave a comment

Poem: 16 / I Hear Nearby

Posted on July 4, 2012 by

I hear nearby firing squad bullets meant for me I am elsewhere All my deeds in a little box in my heart There are trees in full leaf and meadows in full bloom Nothing ripples like a horse’s back bounding … Continue reading →

Posted in ABDAL-HAYY'S POETRY, cancer treatment, heaven and earth, ISLAM/SUFISM, Light, Love of God, POEMS, POETRY, Sufi Poetry | 1 Comment

Poem: 1 / God of the Sliver

Posted on June 4, 2012 by

O God of the sliver that fells a giant of the gnat that burrows into the brain of Nimrod (such a famous drilling to Glory) Of a spiraling tornado that flattens towns but is the DNA’s motion one spinning spiral … Continue reading →

Posted in ABDAL-HAYY'S POETRY, ISLAM/SUFISM, Light, Love, Love of God, Muslim Poetry, POEMS, POETRY, Prayer for Safety, saints, signs of allah, Sufi Poetry | 2 Comments

Poem: Of Course the Essence of it All

Posted on May 10, 2012 by

Of course the essence of it all is love How else explain the hardest blackest coal nugget turns to diamond clenched in earth’s rockiest deeps? How else explain a mother penguin returning from miles away goes right to her squeaking … Continue reading →

Posted in ABDAL-HAYY'S POETRY, ISLAM/SUFISM, Light, Love, Love of God, Muslim Poetry, POEMS, POETRY, signs of allah, Sufi Poetry, The Essence | Leave a comment

Poem & Drawing: How Can We Not Admire

Posted on April 13, 2012 by

HOW CAN WE NOT ADMIRE How can we not admire emptiness especially when it’s pregnant with superlative Light? Explosively thrilling in its opening of our perceptions from toe-tips to galactic distances more numerous than sand grains in a colossal stretch … Continue reading →

Posted in ABDAL-HAYY'S POETRY, amazement, Diamond, gratitude, ISLAM/SUFISM, Light, POEMS, POETRY, Space, Sufi Poetry | 1 Comment