This is a small poetry club that started as a poetry email exchange between two friends. Our goal is to read a poem everyday, and this blog is one way to help keep us accountable. There is only one valid rule in poetry club: there are no rules in poetry club. Read any poem, in any order, with any or no interactions. You decide. We only suggest you read poetry!
3 Aug: "In your light I learn how to love" by Rumi
In your light I learn how to love.
In your beauty, how to make poems.
You dance inside my chest where no-one sees you,
but sometimes I do,
and that sight becomes this art.
The power of creative expression...and the places we "go" to find it...poets often describe this place inside of the deepest wells of the heart, inside the chest, the center of the body and this, too, is the "seat of the soul" in Ayurveda. Other speak of creativity deriving from the centers of the right side of the brain, or more-likely the higher reaching communications between both sides of the brain. We often group Love in this category as well...where we love from and where we FEEL the connection to the creative force of nature could very well be the same thing. Of two people creating more energy than existed in the first place...or channeling as much goodness as possible out of the "center"..
This has to be one of your favorite poems! This is the third time you have posted this poem. I have also done this (al though I don't remember getting three yet!) a couple times with Emily Dickinson and Edgar Allen Poe, who are both commonly referenced. I may have with a couple other poems too. It is funny how you come across a poem and it strikes you a certain way, and then you complete forget how it impacted before, or even forget you read it.
The first two lines are such cliches, but the middle is more interesting. Dancing inside his chest where no-one sees, but sometimes him. I feel that "that sight is not cliche." I'd like to read the narrator say more about it. It is funny I just read our previous comments, and this time I didn't read the audience as God. I do now, haha.
I had no idea!! And once a year?! I really enjoyed your insight on how the impact of reading a poem once, forgetting its impact and then being able to be impacted all over again from a different place. I am guilty to a fault on this avenue...but Rumi, although- yes, admit, a lot of cliché...holds so much innocence and lightness. So much hope and goodness and rightness. I suppose he gets me like I get him. Every time and without memory.
On audience as "god"/divine...the creative nature I felt in my first comment relates to the yogic idea of "Shakti"...the feminine creator/creative of the universe...it is said that the creative nature of life is in an attempt to merge/unite back with pure consciousness itself, "Shiva" the masculine nature of life- and is explained by a lot of the natural talents, creativities and urges of our lives to find our "true" passion, our true nature. Shakti to Shiva....Rumi having this background of culture appears to be describing this dance...an awareness of the ultimate merge!
Knowing more about the background of the author and the places they write from helps in the philosophical poetry...but I suppose poetry is all an entirely subjective experience.
The power of creative expression...and the places we "go" to find it...poets often describe this place inside of the deepest wells of the heart, inside the chest, the center of the body and this, too, is the "seat of the soul" in Ayurveda. Other speak of creativity deriving from the centers of the right side of the brain, or more-likely the higher reaching communications between both sides of the brain. We often group Love in this category as well...where we love from and where we FEEL the connection to the creative force of nature could very well be the same thing. Of two people creating more energy than existed in the first place...or channeling as much goodness as possible out of the "center"..
ReplyDeleteAJ,
ReplyDeleteThis has to be one of your favorite poems! This is the third time you have posted this poem. I have also done this (al though I don't remember getting three yet!) a couple times with Emily Dickinson and Edgar Allen Poe, who are both commonly referenced. I may have with a couple other poems too. It is funny how you come across a poem and it strikes you a certain way, and then you complete forget how it impacted before, or even forget you read it.
The first two lines are such cliches, but the middle is more interesting. Dancing inside his chest where no-one sees, but sometimes him. I feel that "that sight is not cliche." I'd like to read the narrator say more about it. It is funny I just read our previous comments, and this time I didn't read the audience as God. I do now, haha.
https://readgoodpoetry.blogspot.com/2017/02/7-feb-in-your-light-by-rumi.html
https://readgoodpoetry.blogspot.com/2016/11/nov-2-in-your-light.html
I had no idea!! And once a year?! I really enjoyed your insight on how the impact of reading a poem once, forgetting its impact and then being able to be impacted all over again from a different place. I am guilty to a fault on this avenue...but Rumi, although- yes, admit, a lot of cliché...holds so much innocence and lightness. So much hope and goodness and rightness. I suppose he gets me like I get him. Every time and without memory.
DeleteOn audience as "god"/divine...the creative nature I felt in my first comment relates to the yogic idea of "Shakti"...the feminine creator/creative of the universe...it is said that the creative nature of life is in an attempt to merge/unite back with pure consciousness itself, "Shiva" the masculine nature of life- and is explained by a lot of the natural talents, creativities and urges of our lives to find our "true" passion, our true nature. Shakti to Shiva....Rumi having this background of culture appears to be describing this dance...an awareness of the ultimate merge!
Knowing more about the background of the author and the places they write from helps in the philosophical poetry...but I suppose poetry is all an entirely subjective experience.