Inspiration Saturdays: The Prophet
Funny how the oddest things can become your inspiration.
I was watching MI-5. In the episode "Outsiders," Ruth was talking with Andrew, an old friend/computer programming wunderkid over the dinner table. They were exchanging lines of poetry, which is so Ruth. Andrew was talking about he was going to leave the service after this, go away somewhere far, retire, live happily ever after.
He said: "Ready am I to go, the sails of my eagerness await the wind." And Ruth replies: "And then I will come to you, a boundless drop to a boundless ocean."
Perhaps it was the way Ruth said it but I loved it. So what if Andrew turned out to be the bad guy terrorist? What stayed with me from that episdoe was: Poetry should always be read out loud. Ruth wrongly attributed the lines to Arab poet Abu Nuwas. The lines are from The Prophet by Lebanese-American poet Khalil Gibran. I looked up some excerpts from his work, and decided: Yes, poetry should definitely always be read out loud.
The lines are from The Coming of the Ship. As it turns out, it seems to be less a romantic poem than it is an ode by a sailor, eager to return to the awaiting arms of his ship and the sea. It says, in part:
And his soul cried out to them, and he said:
Sons of my ancient mother, you riders of the tides,
How often have you sailed in my dreams. And now you come in my awakening, which is my deeper dream.
Ready am I to go, and my eagerness with sails full set awaits the wind.
Only another breath will I breathe in this still air, only another loving look cast backward,
Then I shall stand among you, a seafarer among seafarers.
And you, vast sea, sleepless mother, Who alone are peace and freedom to the river and the stream,
Only another winding will this stream make, only another murmur in this glad,
And then shall I come to you, a boundless drop to a boundless ocean.
And of course, once you got going, you can't help but fall into the lush words of his other poems.
This is On Love, in part:
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed; For love is sufficient unto love. When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," but rather, I am in the heart of God."
And think not you can direct the course of love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.
And this, On Marriage - quite a wondrous definition of what I think marriage ought to be like:
Then Almitra spoke again and said, "And what of Marriage, master?"
And he answered saying:
You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when white wings of death scatter your days.
Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Love one another but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together, yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.