Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Don't Listen To Anything I Say

Don't Listen To Anything I Say 



Don’t listen to anything I say.
 I must enter the center of the fire.

Fire is my child, but I must 
be consumed and become fire.

Why is there crackling and smoke? 
Because the firewood and the flames 
are still talking about each other.

“You are too dense. Go away!”

“You are too wavering.
 I have solid form.”

In the blackness those friends keep arguing. 
Like a wanderer with no face. 
Like the most powerful bird in existence
 sitting on its perch, refusing to move.



From The Book of Love
Translated by Coleman Barks