Therese of Lisieux - My Song for Today

My life is an instant, an hour passing by.
My life is but a day escaping and fleeing.
You know well, O my god! to love you on this earth
I only have today.

Oh! I love you, Jesus, to you my soul aspires.
If only for one day remain my sweet support.
Come and reign in my heart, bestow your smile on me
if only for today!

Do I care if, O Lord, somber is the future?
To pray for tomorrow, oh no this I cannot!
But my heart keep unstained, in your shadow drape me
If only for today.

Thinking of tomorrow, I fear my fickleness.
I can feel in my heart sadness and despair bloom.
But I welcome, my God, trial and suffering
If only for today.

I am soon to see you on the eternal shore.
O, Divine Pilot! Whose hand is guiding me.
On these unruly waves please keep my boat in peace
If only for today.

Oh! Let me hide, my lord, let me hide in your Face.
From there I will not have to bear the world's vain noise.
Bestow your love on me, bestow your grace again
If only for today.

Near to your divine heart, passing things disappear
I'm no longer affraid of the fears of the night
Oh! Offer me, Jesus, a seating in this Heart
If only for today.

Living, Heavenly Bread, God-given Eucharist,
O sacred Mystery! You the product of Love...
Come inhabit my heart, Jesus, my pristine Host,
If only for today.

Deign to unite to me, sacred and Holy Vine,
So that this weakest branch can bear its fruits for you
So that I can give you well ripe and golden grapes,
My Lord, as of today.

This bunch of grapes of love, the seeds it bears are souls
I have but, to grow it, this one, this fleeting day
The fire of Apostles, I ask of you, Jesus,
If only for today.

Virgin Immaculate! You are my Guiding Star
Giving Jesus to me, uniting me to Him.
O Mother! let me rest, secluded in your veil
If only for today.

Holy Guardian Angel, take me under your wing.
May your fires cast light on this path I'm walking.
Come and direct my steps... I cry to you, help me
If only for today.

O Lord, I want your sight, without veils or clouds,
But still exiled from you, from afar I languish.
That your lovable face stays hidden, I may bear
If only for today.

Soon I will fly away, I will speak your praises
When the sunset-less day will dawn upon my soul.
Then on the Angels' lyre I'll be able to sing
The Eternal Today!...

 English version by Pierre-Antoine Dujardin Original Language French

source  Poetry Chakhana

Mary Oliver - As for life

art Martin Johnson Heade

“As for life,
I’m humbled,
I’m without words
sufficient to say

how it has been hard as flint,
and soft as a spring pond,
both of these
and over and over,

and long pale afternoons besides,
and so many mysteries
beautiful as eggs in a nest,
still unhatched

though warm and watched over
by something I have never seen –
a tree angel, perhaps,
or a ghost of holiness.

Every day I walk out into the world
to be dazzled, then to be reflective.
It suffices, it is all comfort –
along with human love,

dog love, water love, little-serpent love,
sunburst love, or love for that smallest of birds
flying among the scarlet flowers.
There is hardly time to think about

stopping, and lying down at last
to the long afterlife, to the tenderness
yet to come, when
time will brim over the singular pond, and become forever,

and we will pretend to melt away into the leaves.
As for death,
I can’t wait to be the hummingbird,
can you?”

‘Long Afternoon At The Edge Of Sister Pond’ by Mary Oliver

 

Hakim Sanai - Be whole, and nothing

When the path ignites a soul,
there's no remaining in place.

The foot touches ground,
but not for long.

The way where love tells its secret
stays always in motion,
and there is no you there, and no reason.

The rider urges his horse to gallop,
and so doing, throws himself
under the flying hooves.

In love-unity there's no old or new.
Everything is nothing.
God alone is.

For lovers the phenomena-veil is very transparent,
and the delicate tracings on it cannot
be explained with language.

Clouds burn off as the sun rises,
and the love-world floods with light.

But cloud-water can be obscuring,
as well as useful.

There is an affection that covers the glory,
rather than dissolving into it.

It's a subtle difference,
like the change in Persian
from the word "friendship"
to the word "work."

That happens with just a dot
above or below the third letter.

There is a seeing of the beauty
of union that doesn't actively work
for the inner conversation.

Your hand and feet must move,
as a stream streams, working
as its Self, to get to the ocean.
Then there's no more mention
of the search.

Being famous, or being a disgrace,
who's ahead or behind, these considerations
are rocks and clogged places
that slow you. Be as naked as a wheat grain
out of its husk and sleek as Adam.

Don't ask for anything other
than the presence.

Don't speak of a "you"
apart from That.

A full container cannot be more full.
Be whole, and nothing.

Lord Krishna - I Am.....

I am the object of all knowledge,
father of the world,
its mother,
source of all things, of impure and pure,
of holiness and horror.

I am the goal,
the root,
the witness,
home and refuge,
dearest friend,
creation and annihilation,
everlasting seed and treasure.

I am the radiance of the sun,
I open or withhold the rainclouds,
I am immortality and death,
am being and non-being.

I am the Self, Arjuna,
seated in the heart of every creature.
I am the origin,
the middle, and
the end that all must come to.

”

—

Lord Krishna to Arjuna

The Bhagavad Gita

( translation: Stephen Mitchell )

PDF

Rumi - To be a Sufi

photo Antoin Sevruguin

 “To be a Sufi,
forget the past,
put it all away;
turn a brand new page,
rescue your being
from yesterday;
become a child
of the present age,
of youth,
of wisdom—
Never leave this
bountiful moment,
this eternal day.”

 

Ahmad al-Alawi - Layla

Full near I came unto where dwelleth
Layla, when I heard her call.
That voice, would I might ever hear it!
She favored me, and drew me to her,
Took me in, into her precinct,
With discourse intimate addressed me.
She sat me by her, then came closer,
Raised the cloak that hid her from me,
Made me marvel to distraction,
Bewildered me with all her beauty.
She took me and amazed me,
And hid me in her inmost self,
Until I thought that she was I,
And my life she took as ransom.
She changed me and transfigured me,
And marked me with her special sign,
Pressed me to her, put me from her,
Named me as she is named.
Having slain and crumbled me,
She steeped the fragments in her blood.
Then, after my death, she raised me:
My star shines in her firmament.
Where is my life, and where my body,
Where my willful soul? From her
The truth of these shone out to me
Secrets that had been hidden from me.
Mine eyes have never seen but her:
To naught else can they testify.
All meanings in her are comprised.
Glory be to her Creator!
Thou that beauty wouldst describe,
Here is something of her brightness
Take it from me. It is my art.
Think it not idle vanity.
My Heart lied not when it divulged
The secret of my meeting her.
If nearness unto her effaceth,
I still subsist in her substance.

 English version by Martin Lings

http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com 

Jeff Foster - A cup of tea

Life is not on its way.
Life is not 'coming soon'.

Your life, your whole life, is here today. It is here in every breath, every thought exploding like a firework in the vastness of awareness. It is here in every moment of contact with a stranger, every sensation that sizzles in the body, every pang of longing and every burst of satisfaction. It is here in every moment of gain or loss, every failure or success, every taste of bliss, every instant of despair.

Life is not hiding. Life is not missing (for it is here even in the feeling that something's missing).

We are talking about your most intimate lover, your closest friend and companion, the unconditional love you were always seeking in time.
We are talking about the lullaby you always secretly heard in your private moments, the password that was always on the tip of your tongue.
We are speaking about the Unspeakable, singing a melody that only the heart can hear.

So let's go and have a cup of tea together, and watch the world go by in loving silence.

http://www.lifewithoutacentre.com/

U G Krishnamurti - The Natural State

You wouldn’t touch this with a barge pole. 

This is going to liquidate what you call ‘you’, all of you –

 higher self, lower self, soul, Atman, conscious, subconscious – all of that. 

You come to a point, and then you say ‘I need time’.
 So Sadhana (inquiry and religious endeavor) comes into the picture and you say to yourself “Tomorrow I will understand.” 

 This structure is born of time and functions in time, but does not come to an end through time. 

If you don’t understand now, you are not going to understand tomorrow. 

What you are looking for does not exist. You would rather tread an enchanted ground with beatific visions of a radical transformation of that non-existent self of yours into a state of being which is conjured up by some bewitching phrases. 

That takes you away from your natural state – it is a movement away from yourself. 

To be yourself requires extraordinary intelligence. You are ‘blessed’ with that intelligence; 

nobody need give it to you, nobody can take it away from you. 

He who lets that express itself in its own way is a natural man.

from: The natural state