Friday’s Poetic Pause: “Whatever Gives Pleasure” by Rumi

Whatever Gives Pleasure

Whatever gives pleasure
is the fragrance of the Friend.

Whatever makes us wonder
comes from that light.

What is inside the ground
begins to sprout
because you spilled wine there.

What dies in autumn comes up in spring,
because this way of saying no
becomes in spring your praise-song, yes.

By Rumi, from “A Year With Rumi,” Edited by Coleman Barks

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Have some poems you treasure that you’d like to share with fellow aid workers and do-gooders? Please send them my way at email.howmatters@gmail.com!

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One Comment

  1. Allow me to expand on Rumi’s “Whatever Gives Pleasure”

    Spring’s life rising, each year, reminds me of how my spirit and yours rises to the Universe’s eternal call to grow in love and inner majesty – no matter how cruel the climate, oppression, greed or anger.

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