Put This Design in Your
Carpet
Spiritual experience is a
modest woman
who looks lovingly at only
one man.
It's a great river where
ducks
live happily, and crows
drown.
The visible bowl of form
contains food
that is both nourishing
and a source of heartburn.
There is an unseen
presence we honor
that gives the gifts.
You're water. We're the
millstone.
You're wind. We're dust
blown up into shapes.
You're spirit. We're the
opening and closing
of our hands. You're the
clarity.
We're this language that
tries to say it.
You're joy. We're all the
different kinds of laughing.
Any movement or sound is a
profession of faith,
as the millstone grinding
is explaining how it believes in the river!
No metaphor can say this,
but I can't stop
point to the beauty.
Every moment and place
says,
"Put this design in your
carpet!"
Like the shepherd in Book
II,
who wanted to pick the
lice off God's robe,
and stitch up God's shoes,
I want to be
in such a passionate
adoration
that my tent gets pitched
against the sky!
Let the beloved come
and sit like a guard dog
in front of the tent.
When the ocean surges,
don't let me just hear it.
Let it splash inside my
chest!
--Rumi
