I've been dipping in and out of Rumi's Selected Poems for a couple of weeks and I don't think his poetry is for me. 

 

I'm having the same reaction towards Rumi's work as I had towards Khalil Gibran's The Prophet, ... and Paolo Coelho's The Alchemist. I just want to tell the poems / books to move along and pester someone else. 

 

It just doesn't grab me. So, I'll be passing this book on to a friend who seemed quite interested when I jokingly quoted "let darkness be your candle".

 

I think Rumi deserves a more patient reader than I am. 

Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion.

 

Jalaluddin Rumi

 

Happy 80th birthday, Coleman Barks! Most English-speaking fans of 13th century mystic poet Rumi are readers of Barks' interpretations. Barks is a poet and literature professor who paraphrases existing translations of the Rumi's work.

Elif Shafak is one of the critically acclaimed writers with an exuberant style of writing of the modern era. Her style of writing is simple yet poignant and so very understandable for the humblest of minds. I myself am a personal fan of such a writing style…which reaches out to the masses without being heavily laden with wisdom and experiences.

The biggest feature of this novel is that each and every word of this beautifully written book is a quotation, worthy of sharing to the world.

It was one of those reads that took me a long time to finish but God it was the best one I have read. The beauty is in the alternating stories, both written in different times, but sprawling the generations like a timeless fable. This book will make you love life and God again. Its writing is impeccable, the writing style is easy to follow yet very allegorical. It points out the marathon of life we all are in and how we need to make time for the beauty of things to settle in before we move on to the next one. It talks about how the love of God can bring two people from different parts of the world together. It talks about the power of God. It is so much more than all I have written in this short book review. The complete attraction point of this book is the simplicity yet profoundness of its description of God in a modern world where religion is taken out of context everyday. Must read! If its not on your reading list yet, make it ASAP a part of your Reading Challenge 2017.

Love.

On Rumi
A Note on the Organization of This Book

The Tavern: Whoever Brought Me Here Will Have To Take Me Home

On The Tavern

--Who Says Words with My Mouth?
--We have a huge barrel of wine ...
--A Community of the Spirit
--There's a strange frenzy in my head ...
--Drunks fear the police ...
--A Children's Game
--Gone, inner and outer ...
--The wine we really drink ...
--The Many Wines
--Special Plates
--Burnt Kabob
--The New Rule
--This that is tormented ...

Bewilderment: I Have Five Things to Say

On Bewilderment

--I Have Five Things to Say
--Acts of Helplessness
--Saladin's Begging Bowl
--Late, by myself ...
--Does sunset sometimes look ...
--Be Melting Snow
--The Fragile Vial
--Where Are We?
--The Friend comes into my body ...
--There is a light seed grain ...
--Do you think I know ...

Emptiness and Silence: The Night Air

On Silence

--The Reed Flute's Song
--A Thirsty Fish
--Enough Words?
--This World Which Is Made of Our Love for Emptiness
--Quietness
--Sinai
--A Just-Finishing Candle
--Craftsmanship and Emptiness
--Emptiness
--When you are with everyone but me ...
--No Flag
--The Food Sack
--The Night Air
--Only Breath
--There is a way between voice ...

Spring Giddiness: Stand in the Wake of This Chattering and Grow Airy

On Spring Giddiness

--Spring
--Where Everything Is Music
--A Great Wagon
--Today, like every other day ...
--Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing ...
--The breeze at dawn ...
--I would love to kiss you ...
--Daylight, full of small dancing particles ...
--They try to say what you are ...
--Come to the orchard in Spring ...
--Spring is Christ
--Shreds of Steam
--The Steambath
--The Ground Cries Out
--Unfold Your Own Myth
--Not a Day on Any Calendar
--Flutes for Dancing
--The Shape of My Tongue
--The Grasses
--The Sheikh Who Played with Children
--Let the lover be disgraceful ...
--All day and night, music ...

Feeling Separation: Don't Come Near Me

On Separation

--Sometimes I Forget Completely
--A Man and a Woman Arguing
--A night full of talking that hurts ...
--An Empty Garlic
--The Diver's Clothes Lying Empty ...
--Red Shirt
--My Worst Habit
--Don't let your throat tighten ...
--Dissolver of Sugar
--Pale sunlight ...

Controlling the Desire-Body: How Did You Kill Your Rooster, Husam?

On The Desire-Body

--Sexual Urgency, What a Woman's Laughter Can Do, and the Nature of True Virility
--Tattooing in Qazwin
--The Center of the Fire
--Someone who goes with half a loaf ...
--The mystery does not get clearer ...
--Muhammad and the Huge Eater
--Fasting
--Bismillah
--Wean Yourself
--After the Meditation
--The Dog in the Doorway
--The light you give off ...
--Tending Two Shops
--Think that you're gliding out ...

Sohbet: Meetings on the Riverbank

On Sohbet

--Talking in the Night
--Talking Through the Door
--A Mouse and a Frog
--The Long String
--The Force of Friendship
--The Vigil
--Two Friends
--The Servant Who Loved His Prayers
--Imra'u 'l-Qays
--All Rivers at Once
--The Blocked Road
--A Babbling Child
--Who sees inside from outside? ...
--Constant Conversation
--Bonfire at Midnight
--In Between Stories
--The Question
--The Music
--I saw you last night in the gathering ...
--The Tent
--Friend, our closeness is this ...
--Listen to presences ...

Being a Lover: The Sunrise Ruby

On Being a Lover

--The Sunrise Ruby
--Water from Your Spring
--You Sweep the Floor
--Each Note
--Granite and Wineglass
--Buoyancy
--Music Master
--When I am with you ...
--The minute I heard my first love story ...
--We are the mirror as well as the face ...
--I want to hold you close ...
--Someone Digging in the Ground
--The Phrasing Must Change
--The Guest House

The Pickaxe: Getting to the Treasure Beneath the Foundation

On The Pickaxe

--Who Makes These Changes?
--Why Wine Is Forbidden
--On Resurrection Day
--The Dream That Must Be Interpreted
--The Pickaxe
--Zikr
--The Core of Masculinity
--I honor those who try ...
--Dervish at the Door

Art as Flirtation with Surrender: Wanting New Silk Harp Strings

On Flirtation

--Omar and the Old Poet
--An Egypt That Doesn't Exist
--Chinese Art and Greek Art
--In your light I learn ...
--Drumsound rises on the air ...
--Are you jealous of the ocean's generosity? ...

Union: Gnats Inside the Wind

On Union

--Gnats Inside the Wind
--Meadow-sounds
--Ayaz and the King's Pearl
--Put This Design in Your Carpet
--Hallaj
--We Three
--I am filled with you ...

The Sheikh: I Have Such a Teacher

On The Sheikh

--Chickpea to Cook
--I Have Such a Teacher
--Sublime Generosity
--Like This
--A Bowl
--Wax
--No Room for Form
--Childhood Friends
--The Mouse and the Camel
--These gifts from the Friend ...
--The Lame Goat

Recognizing Elegance: Your Reasonable Father

On Elegance

--Father Reason
--A craftsman pulled a reed ...
--Humble living does not diminish ...
--New Moon, Hilal
--Body Intelligence
--The Seed Market

The Howling Necessity: Cry Out in Your Weakness

On Howling

--Love Dogs
--Cry Out in Your Weakness
--The Debtor Sheikh
--You that come to birth ...

Teaching Stories: How the Unseen World Works

On The Unseen

--Nasuh
--Moses and the Shepherd
--Joy at Sudden Disappointment
--If the beloved is everywhere ...
--Story Water

Rough Metaphors: More Teaching Stories

On Roughness

--Rough Metaphors
--Birdwings
--I Come Before Dawn
--Checkmate
--An Awkward Comparison
--Two Kinds of Intelligence
--Two Ways of Running
--The Importance of Gourdcrafting
--Breadmaking

Solomon Poems: The Far Mosque

On Solomon

--Sheba's Gifts to Solomon
--Solomon to Sheba
--Sheba's Hesitation
--Sheba's Throne
--Solomon's Crooked Crown
--The Far Mosque
--A bird delegation came to Solomon ...

The Three Fish: Gamble Everything for Love

On Gambling

--If you want what visible reality ...
--Gamble everything ...
--In a boat down a fast-running creek ...
--The Three Fish
--Send the Chaperones Away
--When I remember your love ...
--All our lives we've looked ...
--The Gift of Water

Jesus Poems: The Population of the World

On Jesus

--I called through your door ...
--Jesus on the Lean Donkey
--What Jesus Runs Away From
--Christ is the population ...
--There's Nothing Ahead

In Baghdad, Dreaming of Cairo: More Teaching Stories

On Baghdad

--In Baghdad, Dreaming of Cairo: In Cairo, Dreaming of Baghdad
--Dying, Laughing
--Human Honesty
--Dalqak's Message
--The Cat and the Meat
--Sheikh Kharraqani and His Wretched Wife
--The Snake-Catcher and the Frozen Snake
--Polishing the Mirror
--Ali in Battle

Beginning and End: The Stories That Frame the 'Mathnawi'

On The Frame

--The King and the Handmaiden and the Doctor
--The Three Brothers and the Chinese Princess

Green Ears Everywhere: Children Running Through

On Children Running Through

--I used to be shy ...
--Green Ears
--Birdsong brings relief ...
--The way of love is not ...
--Let your throat-song ...
--I have phrases and whole pages ...
--You've so distracted me ...
--I'm Not Saying This Right
--The Least Figure
--I reach for a piece of wood ...

Being Woven: Communal Practice

On Being Woven

--Of Being Woven
--The Waterwheel
--The Granary Floor
--A Song About a Donkey
--Elephant in the Dark

Wished-For Song: Secret Practices

On Secrecy

--A Wished-For Song
--A Basket of Fresh Bread
--When We Pray Alone
--One Who Wraps Himself
--Deliberation
--The Private Banquet
--We are the night ocean ...
--Which is worth more, a crowd ...

Majesty: This We Have Now

On Majesty

--This We Have Now
--The Visions of Daquqi
--The Worm's Waking
--The Freshness
--Judge a Moth by the Beauty of Its Candle
--The morning wind spreads ...
--Slave, be aware ...

Evolutionary Intelligence: Say I Am You

On Evolving

--A Dove in the Eaves
--We have this way of talking ...
--This piece of food ...
--In the slaughterhouse of love ...
--The Witness, the Darling
--In the Arc of Your Mallet
--Unmarked Boxes
--The Milk of Millennia
--The You Pronoun
--Birdsong from Inside the Egg
--Say I Am You

The Turn: Dance in Your Blood

On The Turn

--Inside water, a waterwheel ...
--You have said what you are ...
--A secret turning in us ...
--This moment this love comes to rest ...
--Keep walking, though there's no place ...
--Walk to the well ...
--I circle your nest ...
--No better love than love ...
--Some nights stay up ...
--I am so small ...
--When you feel your lips ...
--The sun is love ...
--Something opens our wings ...
--Held like this ...
--I stand up, and this one of me ...
--I have lived on the lip ...
--Real value comes with madness ...
--Dance, when you're broken open ...

Notes
A Note on These Translations and a Few Recipes
References
Index of Titles and First Lines

 

I have a fairly steady trickle of books coming my way from various swapping sites and review copies. But a few times a year, my steady supply turns into a deluge. I'm talking about library book sales, those glorious places where book dust makes you sneeze and you discover all sorts of books from twenty years ago that you never realized you needed so badly RIGHT NOW. I try to practice restraint, I really do, but it's not easy with the rock-bottom prices. Every time I go, I tell myself a) I'm JUST looking for books that are already on my "to-read" list (ha ha ha ha!); and b) I'll leave as soon as the ONE canvas bag I've brought is full. Well, that trick NEVER works. Canvas bags can be brought out to the car and emptied to be refilled again. Or they can be left in a corner and covered with a coat so both hands are free to grab more books. Or, those ever-so-helpful friends of the library can offer you a second bag. Oh dear.

 

So yesterday, I responded to the siren song of a library book sale in a town an hour away, telling myself all along I should not be doing it, but totally blissed out once I arrived. After some very careful packing, I DID fit all the following books into one canvas bag:

 

The Unicorn by Nancy Hathaway - Come on, unicorns! Is any further explanation necessary? But seriously, I picked this up because I thought I might want it for research if I ever wrote a story about unicorns. And no, I'm not planning to write a story about unicorns ... but when I was a kid, ALL my stories were about unicorns, and that's bound to come back around at some point, right?

 

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins - Um, because I thought I bought The Hunger Games at another library booksale and didn't want it to be lonely. But it turns out, I didn't. So it is. Poor Catching Fire! Must find it a companion quickly ...

 

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell - My husband and I saw the movie when it came out, and I was intrigued enough to want to read the book. My library has it on audio, but it feels like the type of book that should be properly *read*. There's a good chance I'll cave and listen to it on audio anyway, though.

 

The Essential Rumi by Jalal al-Din Rumi - Because Rumi's poetry is SO beautiful, and I've only come across it in bits an snatches, and never owned any before.

 

Once Upon a Time: On the Nature of Fairy Tales by Max Luthi - Because I'm going through a phase when all I want to write are fairy tale retellings.

 

Gray Matter: A neurosurgeon discovers the power of prayer ... one patient at a time - Because I'm interested in religion, health, and brain science. I'm worried it might be a little heavy-handed, but there's only one way to find out!

 

The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan - Because a friend recommended it to me when it first came out YEARS ago, and it's been on my Paperbackswap wishlist ever since. Now I can finally free up the space (on the wishlist -- I'll have to find space on my shelf.)

 

Coming Home Crazy/an Alphabet of China Essays by Bill Holm - What I REALLY wanted was Bill Holm's book about Iceland, but it wasn't there. So I settled for this instead. Bill Holm was my poetry teacher when I was sixteen, and I had no idea at the time that he was such a big deal.

 

Selected Poems & Letters of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson - I've always appreciated Emily Dickinson's poetry, but my fascination took on new life when I read Lyndall Gordan's amazing biography, Lives Like Loaded Guns.

 

Angel Light by Andrew M. Greeley - I picked it up because I'm a fan of Greeley's overall philosophy, although I wasn't impressed by the first novel I read by him. But I was sold when I found out this one is also a RETELLING of the story of Tobit from the Bible.

 

The Skystone, The Saxon Shore, and The Singing Sword by Jack Whyte - One word: Arthurian. (Unfortunately, I'm missing book 3 from the series. Now I'm afraid it was there at the booksale and I *just didn't look hard enough*!)

 

Traveler's Tales: A woman's world: True stories of life on the road, edited by Marybeth Bond - I discovered how much I love travel writing when I edited a series of travel journals for a woman backpacker. I love traveling but dislike flying, and I worry about what I can eat in other countries. Books let me travel without an airplane OR Pepto-Bismol!

 

Mother Journeys: Feminists Write about Mothering - Because I'm a feminist pondering becoming a mother.

 

Path of Least Resistance: Learning to become the creative force in your own life - Because creativity is a lifelong journey and spiritual practice for me.

 

The Classic Slave Narratives: The Life of Oulalah Equiano / The History of Mary Prince / Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas / Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr. - I bought this for a friend who is a history major, and she hasn't decided for sure if she wants it yet. If she doesn't, I love reading published journals.

 

And that's it ... until the next book sale on April 10!