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Sunday, July 28, 2013

Night

—Photo by Katy Brown, Davis



FOUR POEMS ON THE NIGHT
—Rumi

1

This night there are no limits to what may be given.
This is not a night but a marriage,
a couple whispering in bed in unison the same words.
Darkness simply lets down a curtain for that.

2

A night full of talking that hurts,
my worst held-back secrets: Everything
has to do with loving and not loving.
This night will pass.
Then we have work to do.

3

Night comes so people can sleep like fish
in black water. Then day.

Some people pick up their tools.
Others become the making itself.

4

Inside water, a waterwheel turns.
A star circulates with the moon.

We live in the night ocean wondering,
What are these lights?


(trans. by John Moyne and Coleman Barks)

______________________

—Medusa