a letter to the king of the universe

  

Hinke Schreuders

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Cosmos is a Greek word for the orderly harmonious systematic nature of the universe, implying an emanating beauty. It is, in a way, the opposite of Chaos.

It reflects the deep interconnectedness of all things. It conveys awe for the intricate and subtle way in which the universe is put together and functions.


—Carl Sagan

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Open the letter of the body’s life inside the words. 
This body, your life, is a letter to the king of the universe.

Go to a private place and open it and read to see if the words are right. If they are not start another!

And do not think it easy to open the body and read the secret message. This is the most courageous work, not something for children playing with knucklebones in the dirt.

Open to the title page. Is what it says there the same as what you have said it says? If you are carrying a heavy sack, empty out the stones! 

Bring only what should be given.


—Rumi
The Soul of Rumi
Coleman Barks version

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And do not look for me in a human shape.

I am inside your looking. 

No room for form with love this strong.

—Rumi

 

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the sea is also a breviary, it speaks of God. —Jean-Paul Sartre

Tanakit Suwanyangyaun

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And a poet said, Speak to us of Beauty.
And he answered:

Where shall you seek beauty, and how
shall you find her unless she herself be your
way and your guide?

And how shall you speak of her except
she be the weaver of your speech?

The aggrieved and injured say,
"Beauty is kind and gentle."

The tired and weary say,
"Beauty is of soft whisperings
She speaks in our spirit."

In winter say the snow-bound,
"She shall come with the spring leaping upon the hills."

All these things have you said of beauty,
Yet in truth you spoke not of her but of needs unsatisfied,
And beauty is not a need but an ecstasy.

It is not a mouth thirsting nor an empty hand stretched forth,
But rather a heart enflamed and a soul enchanted.

It is not the image you would see nor the song you would hear,
But rather an image you see, though you
close your eyes and a song you hear, though
you shut your ears.

People of Orphalese,
beauty is life when life unveils her holy face.
But you are life and you are the veil.
Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.
But you are eternity and you are the mirror.


—Kahlil Gibran
from The Prophet

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I said to the almond tree, ‘Sister, speak to me of God.’

And the almond tree blossomed.

—Nikos Kazantzakis 

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listen

    

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The purpose of poetry is to remind us 
how difficult it is to remain just one person,

for our house is open, there are no keys in the doors, 
and invisible guests come in and out at will.


—Czesław Miłosz

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As soon as one speaks, as soon as one enters the medium of language, one loses that very singularity. Once I speak, I am never and no longer myself, alone and unique.

—Jacques Derrida
The Gift of Death

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Speech is not of the tongue but of the heart. The tongue is merely the instrument with which one speaks. 

He who is dumb is dumb in his heart, not in his tongue. 

As you speak, so is your heart.

—Paracelsus

  

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stars behind stars behind stars

 

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As I lay there, listening to the soft slap of the sea, and thinking these sad and strange thoughts, more and more and more stars had gathered, obliterating the separateness of the Milky Way and filling up the whole sky. 

And far far away in that ocean of gold, stars were silently shooting and falling and finding their fates, among these billions and billions of merging golden lights. 

And curtain after curtain of gauze was quietly removed, and I saw stars behind stars behind stars, as in the magical Odeons of my youth. 

And I saw into the vast soft interior of the universe which was slowly and gently turning itself inside out. I went to sleep, and in my sleep I seemed to hear a sound of singing.

—Iris Murdoch

The Sea, The Sea

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There is in each person, in every animal, bird and plant 

a star which mirrors, matches or is in some sense the same 

as a star in the heavens.

—Paracelsus 

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