"...There should be as many words for love as the Inuit have for snow..." this is a line from Gregory Hoskins' song, In The Fashion of the Broken Hearted from his album, Pleasure and Relief and it reminds me of this poem by Hafiz. There are so many ways to love and one wonders just how we limit ourselves to filter these many ways and why. Depending on our phase of life, we focus on being nurtured, sex, accomplishment, partnering, success and the like without realizing that there is so much more if we widen our vision and open our hearts.
Hafiz asks us to expand our passions and embolden ourselves to allow greater love into our lives. Love ALL the splendid things with a vigor of gratitude. He suggests that we try and condition ourselves to take life personally.
Thank you for listening.
I cannot think about the northern lights without recalling my infatuation with the album by Esther Golton called Aurora Borealis: Conversations With Alaska's Northern Lights. It is a winter solstice annual in my life but it is so much more than just a seasonal soundscape. Esther lived under the aurora when she composed these pieces. She wasn't just a tourist fancying the pretty lights. She would go out winter after winter and absorb the vibrations of this cosmic phenomena and these songs that she composed are an invocation and celebration of these exchanges. They are very powerful medicine in this way. If you do not have this CD, you should. It is hard for me to pick just one song here. This is Unfolding Curtains in keeping with Hafiz'
"...The currents of lights combusting
Like passionate lips,
The revolution of Existence's skirt
Whose folds contain other worlds..."
The original post in this series of poems by Hafiz (including an addendum regarding the authenticity of these poems) can be found here. Also, my thoughts on this series a year into these poems, HERE.
The Gift: Poems by Hafiz and translated by Daniel Ladinsky can be purchased here.