Why think separately of this life and the next poem


why think separately of this life and the next poem

Life & Death

look at love
how it tangles
with the one fallen in love

look at spirit
how it fuses with earth
giving it new life

why are you so busy
with this or that or good or bad
pay attention to how things blend

why talk about all
the known and the unknown
see how the unknown merges into the known

why think seperately
of this life and the next
when one is born from the last

look at your heart and tongue
one feels but deaf and dumb
the other speaks in words and signs

look at water and fire
earth and wind
enemies and friends all at once

the wolf and the lamb
the lion and the deer
far away yet together

look at the unity of this
spring and winter
manifested in the equinox

you too must mingle my friends
since the earth and the sky
are mingled just for you and me

be like sugarcane
sweet yet silent
don’t get mixed up with bitter words

my beloved grows
right out of my own heart
how much more union can there be


come on sweetheart
let’s adore one another
before there is no more
of you and me

a mirror tells the truth
look at your grim face
brighten up and cast away
your bitter smile

a generous friend
gives life for a friend
let’s rise

Life and Death - Jalaluddin Rumi

[ So I just discovered the rest of that poem and it is mind blowing.]

look at love

how it tangles

with the one fallen in love

look at spirit

how it fuses with earth

giving it new life

why are you so busy

with this or that or good or bad

pay attention to how things blend

why talk about all

the known and the unknown

see how the unknown merges into the known

why think seperately

of this life and the next

when one is born from the last

look at your heart and tongue

one feels but deaf and dumb

the other speaks in words and signs

look at water and fire

earth and wind

enemies and friends all at once

the wolf and the lamb

the lion and the deer

far away yet together

look at the unity of this

spring and winter

manifested in the equinox

you too must mingle my friends

since the earth and the sky

are mingled just for you and me

be like sugarcane

sweet yet silent

don't get mixed up with bitter words

my beloved grows

right out of my own heart

how much more union can there be

look at love

by Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi

English version by Nader Khalili
Original Language Persian/Farsi & Turkish

look at love
how it tangles
with the one fallen in love

look at spirit
how it fuses with earth
giving it new life
why are you so busy
with this or that or good or bad
pay attention to how things blend

why talk about all
the known and the unknown
see how the unknown merges into the known

why think separately
of this life and the next
when one is born from the last

look at your heart and tongue
one feels but deaf and dumb
the other speaks in words and signs

look at water and fire
earth and wind
enemies and friends all at once

the wolf and the lamb
the lion and the deer
far away yet together

look at the unity of this
spring and winter
manifested in the equinox

you too must mingle my friends
since the earth and the sky
are mingled just for you and me

be like sugarcane
sweet yet silent
don't get mixed up with bitter words

my beloved grows right out of my own heart
how much more union can there be

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/ Image by Lenny Montana /


View All Poems by Mevlana Jelalud

Mark Leidner on “Having ‘Having a Coke with You’ with You”

Having “Having a Coke with You” with You

You asked me if I knew the poem “Having a Coke with You”
I said I vaguely remembered it but didn’t really
so you recited it in its entirety. We were walking
from somewhere up by Urban area Hall down toward South Street
and the whole time you were reciting it I was wondering
“Was that the last line of the poem?” after each line
and each time I thought that, I thought it even more
because as the poem got longer the fact that you were reciting it
from memory became incrementally harder to believe
until about two-thirds of the way through the poem
I stopped thinking about how long it was and just started listening
which I had been, but only a little, because of all that. Anyway
then I started listening to it completely, believing
the poem itself to be the sole reason you were reciting it
but as soon as you finished you started to talk about how
you used to think that that poem was just about how
liberatingly banal organism in love with someone was
but then you said you’d started to think more recently
it was more about the idiocy of caring about art at all
when you could spend al

Anonymous asked: “Love, it never dies. It never goes away, it never fades, so long as you hang on to it. Love can make you immortal” -iwillfightbesideyou  


Mina shared with him a love of poetry, and was fond of reading him snippets and quotes on those quiet evenings, like tonight, when they sat together, her comfortably nestled against him. Sometimes the things that she chose were so.. apposite that they hurt.

She was full of the joy of what had blossomed between them, and she did not yet know all the trials and tragedies of it. She spoke of dreams, memories that were not hers, that he knew to be Mirena’s but things were not yet sure enough for the whole truth.

He was afraid to have her think that he loved her only as Mirena reborn. Yes that had been part of it, the bond that drew them together, but she was not Mirena in this life and he loved her no less for it. He loved Mina for the woman she was now, and the one constant thing they shared was that she brought such joy to him, somehow despite himself, despite all he was and had been, she was his light.

Vlad smiled and hugged her close to him as she leant against his chest, he dipped his head and kissed