Hiding in a Drop of Water

Hiding in a Drop of Water

 It is early morning and death has forgotten us for

 A while. Darkness owns the house, but I am alive.

 I am ready to praise all the great musicians. 

 Whatever happens to me will also happen to you.

 Surely you must have realized this from hearing

 The way strings cry out no matter who hits them.

 From the great oak trees in the yard in October,

 Leaves fall for hours every morning. Every night

 A thousand wrinkled faces look up at the stars.

 When Rabia’s donkey fell dead in the desert, she shouted

 To God, “Is that the way you treat an old woman?”

 The donkey stood up, and they went on to the Meeting.

 It is this reaching toward the Kaaba that keeps us glad.

 It is this way of hiding inside a drop of water

 That lets the hidden face become visible to everyone.

 Gautama said that when the Great Ferris Wheel

 Stops turning, you will still be way up 

There, swinging in your seat and laughing.

 Robert Bly

 1926-2021

"Rabia" was a Sufi saint.  "Kaaba" is the most sacred site in Islam.  "Gautama" is the Buddha.   The Ferris Wheel was invented in the late 19th century by George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. of Galesburg, Illinois. He later founded a business in Pittsburgh.  Poetic license or Bly's wry joke, the point is made.  RIP to an essential voice of the 20th century and beyond.  His work lives on.