Saturday Morning

Posted on by Live & Learn

Let my words become like a skilled
Potter’s hands,
Quieting,
Smoothing your life
With their knowledge,
Reaching into your tender core
And spreading you out
Like the morning …

~ Hafiz (1315-1390), from “Your Shape of Laughter” in “The Subject Tonight Is Love. 60 Wild and Sweet Poems of Hafiz”

Photo: katrinauld. Poem via finita–la–commedia

46 thoughts on “Saturday Morning”

      1. He’s one of only ahandful, who’s words are strung so beautifully.
        And his words are always the most condensed. One cannot reduce it any further.
        The very core of the universe speaks through him.

        2. Be kind
          to your sleeping heart.
          Take it out
          into the vast fields
          of Light
          And let it
          breathe.

          ~ Hafiz, from I Heard God Laughing: Renderings of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky. Mobius Press, Oakland, CA, pp. 73.

          1. “Stay close to any sounds

            That make you glad you are alive.

            Everything in this world is

            Helplessly reeling.”

            ~ Hafiz, from The Gift

          4. OK, let’s close with:

            Even
            After
            All this time
            The Sun never says to the Earth,
            “You owe me.”

            Look
            What happens
            With a love like that,
            It lights the whole sky.

            From Daniel Ladinsky, The Gift: Poems by Hafiz (1999), p. 34.

  4. “One regret dear world,
    that I am determined not to have when I am lying on my deathbed
    is that I did not kiss you enough.”

    ~ Hafiz

  8. I’m in love!
    The best ultra-short-stories ever…. And thank you guys for the further poem exchange. Can’t get enough (be still my heart!). Happy weekend, enough sleep, some inward time, only good thoughts and as little worries as possible (thinking of your brother).

  9. As an occasional potterer I can so relate to this – perfect combo. I didn’t do the wheel, only free-forming but it’s the very best therapy, apart from singing – and in the worst case, you throw the clay down on the work table, smooth it out and begin once more. Sooooo soothing!

      1. It’s a feeling unlike any other. It soothes, it gives your fingers, but mostly your mind some rest, it’s peaceful, you CANNOT HURRY, and although it’s so calming, you still have to get your grips together or you will end up with something nobody would like.
        But I have news: You are not having the time to do it – sadly. It’s not something you can squeeze in your mega-compressed daily life. That’s the whole idea behind it (for us ‘Sunday’ potterers). But it’s really, really, really a wonderful pass-time. And with some luck, you create beautiful gifts too.

  13. I love how you and Sawsan and any other of your followers pick up and join in on your poetry exchanges.
    I really need to widen my horizons.

      1. Please… just paid $160 for a new pair to maybe be able to finish the season (which, in itself is iffy, to say the least). Pain is now shooting up my shin.
        No bueno.

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