Why do I write…? I have no choice… I have been writing and performing poetry since 1961, with greater and more insistent urgency as the years went by.What about you? What do you feel an urgency to create? Your expression is meant to be shared! The flow of your creativity mirrors the flow of your life.
I’ve chosen a few of Qutbuddin’s poems that light me on fire. It was so difficult to choose!
May they spark the resonance of your heart’s voice. Listen for the ways that speak to you. Open yourself to receive. Creation is always new.
Philos 89 On My Internal Marriage
04-27-98
1> Calling Down My Spirit
My Spirit is Singing again,,,thru the trees
Singing again up the ravine and deep, deep
Down in the canyon, but…walks not…for
I am the walker, the talker. My Spirit knows
The Paeans of the Spheres…and How to Fly
My Spirit is never grounded…
2> Calling Up my Soul
My Soul likes the dark ways. allies, caves
The bottom of the ravine…at the river’s side
Deep in the canyon…or just above in the
Catacombs of earthen mind and heart…warm
Darkness protecting, shadows birthing
In the Soul’s womb-deep retreat…
3> & I… I Stand Between Them
It is these two with whom forever I dance
Between…letting mood and fever enliven
Foot’s fall and lift my head…I can never
Let blue moods hold sway over
My heart and only rarely over my head…
Ebullience cannot be contained by
Darkness… Always it explodes into the
Light…often doing so with song…from
The Ethers or from Her Earthen Breast…
The music draws me up off of sofas
Of discontent…I cannot stay down…
Some say of me that I am ungrounded…
I say to them: Come fly with me…
Join me in the flight…
In the Joy…in the Light!
My Moments of Being
01-01-08
I need moments aside from the River’s Flowing voices…even as its voices Sing and cry, pool and sigh, spill and run again…
I am distracted from center… And my own seeking of The Light… Light is Home…is my Center and… The simultaneous edges of being… Sitting as the River runs away with My senses…leaving a void…null sensing… Needing only a mooring to the Self, to the I… When Self has reached out to me From the Center…sitting here at The abyss’ edge…I have seen In the depth of the mirror… Murshid’s Face
Or I have seen Khiddr from the green forests Of Self come walking toward me and I am elated and I am awed and I am Confounded with desire to go Home
And I am strengthened to walk on into The next moment of my beingness.
We Are That We Are
03-03-08
It’s a simple truth: “We Are That We Are!” The pear tree is that it is… The hazel is that it is…
I am that I am…
From here I walk to you… For you are my mirror to my growth… Here after this seed…sprouting…reaches Ever upward…ever deeper… Being a being capable of awareness Of what is to the left or right… Sensing what is behind… Seeing what is in front… Receiving from what is above… Breath is the medium that carries this body…
Lives are lived and ended within a breath… Thought is an energy carried on the breath… How we think is how we live… So learning what ‘thinking’ is… How ‘thinking’ is originated… How it is compelled…impelled…
How one can purify one’s thought process… It is a simply obvious…natural desire of Every ‘human’ being… Or…it should be…
So be it!
Agape 132: Loving Humanity
04-27-15
We once, pre-renaissance, thought that our Sun
was the Center of our Universe…and
as a people, a church…condemned a great
man….Copernicus…yet, with a core of the
Truth being his, the Renaissance began
to gain momentum.
Galileo confirmed Copernican
theory in its own Light and led us
toward the Universe’s true dimensions.
Yet we are called, as mystics, back into
Our Own Center for…it is in here that
The Oneness centers its claim…in Our
Soul-Heart connection.
That little self, the ego, is loosened
from its grip on our minds and horizons
in the rising illumination frees
our Hearts to open our Minds to lyrics
singing from our Soul’s intuition
resource bank…
All of those saved pennies can be spent Now!
Ideas and concepts dusted off in
the new Light from our awakening Minds!
Closets full of old dreams brought
into the Light, lit up!
Avenues brought out of the horizon’s Light…
Creativity expanded…drawing
community into the wonder…
The excitement
Opening the Qibla
for all…into the knowing of Oneness…
Of The Unity…
that is The Love of Humanity!
The Love of You and Me
For Thee…Humanity!
10 Responses
Beautiful! Thank you for sharing, Laurie.
Thanks for stopping by, Marianne!
What a gorgeous website, Laurie! ~ And this post is simply beautiful. I found myself captivated by Qutbuddin’s poetry. ~ Your powerful questions, “Why do you write?” and “What do you feel an urgency to create?” – has inspired some wonderful journal writing this evening. Thank you! 🙂
Thank you, Tina! I’m delighted to hear that your own writing was inspired this evening. Wonderful!
Laurie,
I took this photograph of Q while hiking the slot canyon trail at Kasha-Katuwe National Monument in 2014. Thank you so much for sharing your post on him. When I began reading the first poem, Philos 89…I could not believe what I was reading…it was like reliving that fateful moment when I saw Q coming up the canyon in that spiritual place. There was an aura around him which compelled me to ask him for a photograph…which was totally out of character for me…I am so thankful that I did and that he graciously accepted. While we were total strangers there was…this… inner knowledge that we were connected. We have since re-connected and talked about that wonderful morning and chance meeting like it was yesterday. BTW…the photograph will be exhibited from January 30, 2016 to March 31, 2016 at the Tularosa Basin Gallery of Photography.
Thank you so much for letting me use this photo, Emmitt! It brings another dimension to Qutbuddin’s words. It’s wonderful to have the “behind-the-scenes” story of how it came to be.
The photography show you mention will be held in Carrizozo, New Mexico.
I loved Q’s story and his deep devotion. They speak to my heart. Philos 89 was my favorite. Transcendently grounding. Thank you for sharing his story and your query. I have felt an urgency to create that I’ve been working my way up to – so your question is a well timed nudge.
I love well-timed nudges, Joni. Thank you so much for allowing this to be one of those. Laurie
Poetry is the art of translating your heart into words. I’ve been inspired by Wali Qutbuddin’s wise words.
Thank you Laurie, for compiling it here.
I’ve tried my hand in poetry before, there’s something so comforting about it. Here’s the first few stanza of one of them:
“In an endless chase to find myself
To locate the real me
To pull the right book of the shelf
That defines me legibly
I swim to find myself some more
In hopes to salvage me
Though I’m always washed back to shore
I try back pridefully
A children’s game of hide and seek
Where kids all choose a side
Yet I am both, in one physique
I somehow flip its tide…”
His words are indeed wise. Thank you for adding your poetry to his. Lovely, James!