Great Throughts Treasury

"I cannot unveil the Mystery. I cannot reveal what you know perfectly - in my heart the most secret"

"I have lived on the lip of insanity, wanting to know reasons, knocking on a door. It opens. I’ve been knocking from the inside."

"I know you’re tired but come, this is the way."

"I long to escape the prison of my ego and lose myself in You."

"I looked for the soul in the sea and coral found there and under the foam was all around for me lying naked on the night of my heart and along the narrow road I felt light of the day the land of eternal."

"I closed my mouth and spoke to you in a hundred silent ways."

"I can't stop pointing to the beauty. Every moment and place says, 'Put this design in your carpet!'"

"I come to you, aching for you. You say, 'You're drunk. Go away.' I say 'No. I'm not drunk. Please open the door.' You say, 'You are, you are.. Go away'."

"I don't regret how much I love, and I avoid those who repent their passion."

"I didn't come here of my own accord, and I can't leave that way. Whoever brought me here, will have to take me home."

"I do not know who lives here in my chest, or why the smile comes. I am not myself, more the bare green knob of a rose that lost every leaf and petal to the morning wind."

"I saw grief drinking a cup of sorrow and called out, 'It tastes sweet, does it not?' 'You've caught me,' grief answered, 'and you've ruined my business. How can I sell sorrow, when you know it's a blessing?'"

"I searched for God among the Christians and on the Cross and therein I found Him not. I went into the ancient temples of idolatry; no trace of Him was there. I entered the mountain cave of Hira and then went as far as Qandhar but God I found not. With set purpose I fared to the summit of Mount Caucasus and found there only 'anqa's habitation. Then I directed my search to the Kaaba, the resort of old and young; God was not there even. Turning to philosophy I inquired about him from ibn Sina but found Him not within his range. I fared then to the scene of the Prophet's experience of a great divine manifestation only a two bow-lengths' distance from him but God was not there even in that exalted court. Finally, I looked into my own heart and there I saw Him; He was nowhere else."

"I see my beauty in you."

"I see so deeply within myself. Not needing my eyes, I can see everything clearly. Why would I want to bother my eyes again Now that I see the world through His eyes?"

"I spent millions of years in the world of inorganic things as a star, as a rock... Then I died and became a plant-- Forgetting my former existence because of its otherness Then I died and became an animal-- Forgetting my life as a plant except for inclinations in the season of spring and sweet herbs-- like the inclination of babes toward their mother's breast Then I died and became a human My intelligence ripened, awakening from greed and self-seeking to become wise and knowing I behold a hundred thousand intelligences most marvelous and remember my former states and inclinations And when I die again I will soar past the angels to places I cannot imagine Now, what have I ever lost by dying?"

"I tried to find Him on the Christian cross, but He was not there; I went to the temple of the Hindus and to the old pagodas, but I could not find a trace of Him anywhere. I searched on the mountains and in the valleys, but neither in the heights nor in the depths was I able to find Him. I went to the Kaaba in Mecca, but He was not there either. I questioned the scholars and philosophers, but He was beyond their understanding. I then looked into my heart, and it was there where He dwelled that I saw Him; He was nowhere else to be found."

"I turn all thorn then, but you come back again and make my thorniness fragrant and pink and petaled."

"I once had a thousand desires. But in my one desire to know you all else melted away."

"I used to read the myths of love. Now I have become the mythical lover."

"I walk into a huge pasture I nurse the milk of millennia."

"I want a heart which is split, part by part, because of the pain of separation from God, so that I might explain my longing and complaint to it."

"I want to see you. Know your voice. Recognize you when you first come 'round the corner. Sense your scent when I come into a room you've just left. Know the lift of your heel, the glide of your foot. Become familiar with the way you purse your lips then let them part, just the slightest bit, when I lean in to your space and kiss you. I want to know the joy of how you whisper ‘more.’"

"I want to be where your bare foot walks, because maybe before you step, you'll look at the ground. I want that blessing"

"I was a thorn rushing to be with a rose, vinegar blending with honey… Then I found some dirt to make an ointment that would honor my soul… Love says, ‘You are right, but don’t claim these changes. Remember, I am wind. You are an ember I ignite.’"

"I want your sun to reach my raindrops, so your heat can raise my soul upward like a cloud."

"I was a tiny bug. Now a mountain. I was left behind. Now honored at the head. You healed my wounded hunger and anger, and made me a poet who sings about joy."

"I want to sing like the birds sing, not worrying about who hears or what they think."

"I was dead, then alive. Weeping, then laughing. The power of love came into me, and I became fierce like a lion, then tender like the evening star."

"If I love myself I love you. If I love you I love myself."

"If all you can do is crawl, start crawling."

"I, you, he, she, we in the garden of mystic lovers, these are not true distinctions."

"If I can only recount the story of my life right out of my body flames will grow."

"I would love to kiss you. The price of kissing is your life."

"If in the darkness of ignorance, you don’t recognize a person’s true nature, look to see whom he has chosen for his leader."

"If in thirst you drink water from a cup, you see God in it. Those who are not in love with God will see only their own faces in it."

"If the wine drinker has a deep gentleness in him, he will show that when drunk. But if he has hidden anger and arrogance, those appear."

"If ten people want to enter a house, and only nine are finding their way in, a tenth should not say, It was meant to God. ‘He should find out what its shortcomings.’"

"If thou wilt be observant and vigilant, thou wilt see at every moment the response to thy action. Be observant if thou wouldst have a pure heart, for something is born to thee in consequence of every action."

"If the foot of the trees were not tied to earth, they would be pursuing me. For I have blossomed so much, I am the envy of the gardens."

"If we come to sleep we are His drowsy ones And if we come to wake we are in His hands If we come to weeping we are His cloud full of raindrops And if we come to laughing we are His lightning in that moment If we come to anger and battle it is the reflection of His wrath And if we come to peace and pardon it is the reflection of His love Who are we in this complicated world?"

"If you are a man of learning, read something classic, a history of the human struggle and don't settle for mediocre verse."

"If these poems repeat themselves, then so does spring."

"If you are wholly perplexed and in straits, have patience, for patience is the key to joy."

"If you could leave your selfishness, you would see how you've been torturing your soul."

"If you could get rid of yourself just once, the secret of secrets would open to you."

"If you follow the ways in which you were trained, which you may have inherited, for no other reason than this, you are illogical."

"If you don’t try to fly, and so break yourself apart, you will be broken open by death, when it’s too late for all you could become."

"If you could untie your wings and free your soul of jealousy, you and everyone around you would fly up like doves."

"If you desire healing, let yourself fall ill let yourself fall ill."