Waxing Poetically: Addressing Culture with a Twist of Poetry

Digital Photomanipulation:The Sky is Painting by Michael LaPenna

Today, this blog’s weekly quest to nourish the soul brings five poems by India’s beloved poet and spiritual seeker Kabir (1440-1518). Kabir poems have been described as something of a bridge or lingua franca between the worlds of Hinduism, Islam and Christianity in that they draw not from religious, ritual but a universal goal to attain an absolute truth with which the reader can draw and glean a fuller understand of himself. There are still other moments in his poetry in which for all its mystical depth and philosophical indulgence, Kabir’s poetry is quite funny and places his work in a kind of awkwardly appropriate tango in between the writings of Khalil Gibran and William Carlos Williams in the creative energy field that is the history of poetry.

“THE SMART DOGS RAN OFF”

I sat one day with a priest
who expounded on the doctrine
of hell.

I listened to him for hours,
then he asked me
what I thought of
all he said.

And I replied,

That doctrine seems an inhumane cage;
no wonder
the smart dogs
ran off.

“A Man with Amnesia”

With a begging bowl in hand
a man with amnesia
knocks on his own door.

My guru cured me
of that profound illness:

God asking God
for forgiveness
or alms.

“See If They Wet Their Pants”

The words, Guru, Swami, Super Swami, Master, Teacher, Murshid, Yogi, Priest, Bishop,

most of those sporting such a title are
just peacocks.

The litmus test is:
hold them upside down
over a cliff for a few hours.
If they don’t wet their pants

maybe you found
a real one.

“Visiting Holy Shrines”

If you circumambulated
every holy shrine
in the world
ten times,

it would not get you to heaven
as quick

as controlling
your anger.

“An Intelligent Rich Person”

I don’t think there is such a thing as
an intelligent mega-rich
person.

For who with a fine mind can look
out upon this world
and hoard

what can nourish
a thousand
souls.

All the above poems were copied/pasted from http://forum.quoteland.com/1/OpenTopic?a=tpc&s=586192041&f=8951976686&m=4261070251

(Read a Kabir Bio).

Wax with peace of mind.

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