“Like ThisIf anyone asks youhow the perfect satisfactionof all our sexual wantingwill look, lift your faceand say,Like this.When someone mentions the gracefulnessof the nightsky, climb up on the roofand dance and say,Like this.If anyone wants to know what "spirit" is,or what "God’s fragrance" means,lean your head toward him or her.Keep your face there close.Like this.When someone quotes the old poetic imageabout clouds gradually uncovering the moon,slowly loosen knot by knot the stringsof your robe.Like this.If anyone wonders how Jesus raised the dead,don’t try to explain the miracle.Kiss me on the lips.Like this. Like this.When someone asks what it meansto "die for love," pointhere.If someone asks how tall I am, frownand measure with your fingers the spacebetween the creases on your forehead.This tall.The soul sometimes leaves the body, the returns.When someone doesn’t believe that,walk back into my house.Like this.When lovers moan,they’re telling our story.Like this.I am a sky where spirits live.Stare into this deepening blue,while the breeze says a secret.Like this.When someone asks what there is to do,light the candle in his hand.Like this.How did Joseph’s scent come to Jacob?Huuuuu.How did Jacob’s sight return?Huuuu.A little wind cleans the eyes.Like this.When Shams comes back from Tabriz,he’ll put just his head around the edgeof the door to surprise us Like this.”

“The ear participates, and helps arrange marriages;the eye has already made love with what it sees.The eye knows pleasure, delights in the body's shape:the ear hears words that talk about all this.When hearing takes place, character areas change;but when you see, inner areas change.If all you know about fire is what you have heardsee if the fire will agree to cook you!Certain energies come only when you burn.If you long for belief, sit down in the fire!When the ear receives subtly; it turns into an eye.But if words do not reach the ear in the chest, nothing happens.”

“I want to see you.Know your voice.Recognize you when youfirst come 'round the corner.Sense your scent when I come into a room you've just left.Know the lift of your heel,the glide of your foot.Become familiar with the way you purse your lipsthen let them part, just the slightest bit,when I lean in to your spaceand kiss you.I want to know the joy of how you whisper "more”

“When someone is counting outgold for you, don't look at your hands,or the gold. Look at the giver.”

“All day I think about it, then at night I say it.Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing?I have no idea.My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that,And I intend to end up there.This drunkenness began in some other tavern.When I get back around to that place,I'll be completely sober. Meanwhile,I'm like a bird from another continent, sitting in this aviary.The day is coming when I fly off,But who is it now in my ear who hears my voice?Who says words with my mouth?Who looks out with my eyes? What is the soul?I cannot stop asking.If I could taste one sip of an answer,I could break out of this prison for drunks.I didn't come here of my own accord, and I can't leave that way.Whoever brought me here will have to take me home.This poetry. I never know what I'm going to say.I don't plan it.When I'm outside the saying of it, I get very quiet and rarely speak at all.We have a huge barrel of wine, but no cups.That's fine with us. Every morningWe glow and in the evening we glow again.”

“For ages you have come and gonecourting this delusion.For ages you have run from the painand forfeited the ecstasy.So come, return to the root of the rootof your own soul.Although you appear in earthly formYour essence is pure Consciousness.You are the fearless guardianof Divine Light.So come, return to the root of the rootof your own soul.When you lose all sense of selfthe bonds of a thousand chains will vanish.Lose yourself completely,Return to the root of the rootof your own soul.You descended from Adam, by the pure Word of God,but you turned your sightto the empty show of this world.Alas, how can you be satisfied with so little?So come, return to the root of the rootof your own soul.Why are you so enchanted by this worldwhen a mine of gold lies within you?Open your eyes and come ---Return to the root of the rootof your own soul.You were born from the rays of God's Majestywhen the stars were in their perfect place.How long will you suffer from the blowsof a nonexistent hand?So come, return to the root of the rootof your own soul.You are a ruby encased in granite.How long will you decieve Us with this outer show?O friend, We can see the truth in your eyes!So come, return to the root of the rootof your own soul.After one moment with that glorious Friendyou became loving, radiant, and ecstatic.Your eyes were sweet and full of fire.Come, return to the root of the rootof your own soul.Shams-e Tabriz, the King of the Tavernhas handed you an eternal cup,And God in all His glory is pouring the wine.So come! Drink!Return to the root of the rootof your own soul.Soul of all souls, life of all life - you are That.Seen and unseen, moving and unmoving - you are That.The road that leads to the City is endless;Go without head and feetand you'll already be there.What else could you be? - you are That.”

“What the sayer of praise is really praising is himself,by saying implicitly,My eyes are clear."Likewise, someone who criticizes is criticizinghimself, saying implicitly, "I can't see very wellwith my eyes so inflamed.”