Dervish
Right hand to the heavens
Left hand to the earth
White garment the spirit
Black cloak is the dirt
Gravestone for a turban
Ascending up from its perch
The kiss of death from the master
Bowing for the rebirth
A rose tied in its coffin
Slow a petal unfurls
The planets down to the atoms
All orbit in turns
All things are in cycles
Each being returns
Love, the fruit of the spirit
The body, food for the worms
Invoking every rotation
And find what the master affirms
You are just here to remember
There is nothing to learn
Mankind in his glory
A clot that was brought to term
The righteous and the the deniers
All emerged from a sperm
They continue the whirling
Present at every stage
The breath was blown into Adam
The secret flows in your veins
The reed that receives the breath
The Perfect Man is the ney
The higher that one ascends
The more he becomes a slave
Each turn is “make me a vessel
...your mercy enters this plane”
For you have not become a dervish
Until your will is all beings are saved
Illusion of separation
When it dies then you have attained
Then there is no self to speak of
Like the ocean meeting the rain
When a drop falls to its surface
What drop is there that remains?
Those who pass in this matter
Say not that they have been slain
The martyrs yearn for this station
All descriptions in vain
Green birds in the garden
Chirping the greatest name
The fuqara are the wealthy
The sultans they are the slaves
Dust on the path of the Prophet
We raise our hands and we pray
Ya Hazrat Mawlana
Our Master, show us the way
Right hand to the heaven
Left hand to the earth
White garment the spirit
Black cloak is the dirt.
