Dance... by Rumi

I bought a book of poems by Rumi last spring, and really loved them. I have done more scanning of the book than anything. My parents and I went camping for Labor Day weekend this fall, and I found a poem in the book that weekend that quickly became my favorite Rumi poem (and possibly all-time favorite poem). It became my mantra for the semester, and I feel like I have lived out each stanza, or at least tried my hardest to do so. Anyway, here is the poem that saved me and my sanity this semester:

Dance, when you're broken open.
Dance, if you've torn the bandage off.
Dance in the middle of the fighting.
Dance in your blood.
Dance, when you're perfectly free.

-Rumi

Ignorant Embryos

During the spring I bought a collection of Rumi poems, and I adore them. I thought I would post one of the poems I really like.

Wean Yourself

Little by little, wean yourself.
This is the gist of what I have to say.
From an embryo, whose nourishment comes in the blood,
move to an infant drinking milk,
to a child on solid food,
to a searcher after wisdom,
to a hunter of a more invisible game.

Think how it is to have a conversation with an embryo.
You might say, "The world outside is vast and intricate.
There are wheatfields and mountain passes,
and orchards in bloom.

At night there are millions of galaxies, and in sunlight
the beauty of friends dancing at a wedding."

You ask the embryo why he, or she, stays cooped up
in the dark with eyes closed.
Listen to the answer.

There is no "other world."
I only know what I've experience.
You must be hallucinating.


As I try to figure out just what I believe, I find myself coming back to this poem. It tells me that there is still a great mystery in this world that I do not understand. How do I know that the world I see and experience is all that there is? Also, how do I know that it isn't? Perhaps we humans are like the embryo in the poem calling those who have had a spiritual experience crazy. Maybe they are. But, then again, maybe we are just ignorant. Through this, Rumi is arguing that there is a divine presence. I do believe that there is a mystery, and I like that. I'm still figuring out the whole "God" thing, but I would like to believe there is one looking over us conducting the great orchestra of life and this universe.