It doesn't sit well that a lot of his poetry is not something we might call a common humanity or shared human values, though I know there are many that follow his writing and what it teaches. I know, for me, a lot of what his poetry talks about is something I feel that I've always strived for and towards, somehow innately. But not everyone has experienced what I have and has seen the things I've seen in the body that I possess.
Tell me, what historical struggle, what coming together of societal conditions, what political events urges a person towards love? Rumi doesn't believe in good and evil, in the moral sense, but he cannot deny his striving towards goodness. It's in his work, this combining of goodness and love and also, quite differently than the Christian messiah, equality between the material and immaterial possessions of the rich and poor. And the cause? Why does he write such things? He looks down on no man, not thieves, not the wearers of gold, not the drunkard, not the mad.
Again, it doesn't sit well that people - what I feel to be more than that "many" that do - would not and cannot see the value in following his teachings, not as a Messiah or Prophet, but as a poet, one of a great many.
Here is my question: is it in the structure that the power and magic lies? That this is not sermon, but poetry, but art?
(I didn't think I would, because I don't typically "review" poetry but now I might, given more thought.)
I'm reading his work quickly and I don't feel guilty about it. There is much to do, much to read, much to write. I stopped for a minute on this verse:
- F
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