Persian poetry pastiche
Five ghazals inspired by Hafiz's ghazals*
92
Except for Your threshold, in the world my shelter
is nowhere;
my place of safety, except for this one door, there
is nowhere.
You, are the Protector and the Beloved of all Your lovers,
without You we are lost, worthless ... our future
is nowhere!
In the street to Your Winehouse is where You'll find us:
invite us in for a sip, for our thirst that is so rare,
is nowhere!
This world is a prison of illusion, it is a trickster, a thief:
it wants us to think it's all there is but that 'there'
is nowhere!
In dust at Your doorway is where this lover will stay ...
I shall never leave here, because to go elsewhere ...
is 'nowhere'.
Once I thought the world was 'my oyster', but now it
lacks the possibility of any pearl for it, I am aware
is nowhere!
Paul, that real Pearl can only be found by diving into
the depth of the ocean of one's heart, It elsewhere
is nowhere!
148
Heart's blood from our eye all over our face
goes:
one cannot see what from eye upon our case
goes.
Sometimes pain of separation's such it becomes too much
to do anything ... but hope well love's chase
goes!
We seek the Beloved here and there and inside and out ...
can be so elusive, we come that One's face
goes!
What is the point in trying to hunt down that One for
that One's everywhere, yet nowhere our case
I went to see my cardiologist, he said eat, drink less:
then he quotes Hafiz all about God's grace;
goes!
Since I gave him a Divan twenty years ago, he is a
'new man' ... consults Hafiz, commonplace
'Paul, all books of yours since the by-pass I should
get a percentage of ... way the marketplace
goes!'
159
I have the desire that if it from my hand out right
will come,
I'll have in hand such a thing, grief's end in sight
will come.
We are all given a gift from God, whether aware or not:
it is a unique talent ... unless we use it no insight
will come.
Sixty years ago on way to school I skip a turn I create
same rhyme and find a ghazal right, light, bright
will come.
Perhaps you can skip flat stones across a pond that go
on it seems forever and from it even God's delight
will come?
Maybe, you can create a shoe so strong, comfortable,
beautiful, that to wear it one believes what's right
will come.
All God wants us to do to gain grace is to give back
a gift, anew, completed, perfect ... then that Light
will come.
Paul, it is easy, yet