When I and the world vanished, utterly,
And Heaven remained, as Nonexistent Existence,
I was not then a Christian, Jew,
Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist,
Neither did God exist, or other than God.
Only after that Experience,
And the subsequent Presence in The Heart,
Of The Beloved's Perfume lingering,
Did I began looking here and there…
Wondering if I was alone,
In this Affair of The Heart.
I sought throughout the various religions,
Some reference to that Union,
Of Nonexistent Existence,
And Her Sweet Perfume,
Lingering, Intoxicating,
And found in each some Fragrance…
More so here, less so there.
But alas, I found also, always, inevitably,
The dogma and orthodoxy of each,
The varied descriptions,
Of “reality”,
Their assertive pronouncements,
Of “truth”…
And found myself unable to linger.
I wondered, in heartfelt consideration,
If I must pour this Molten Mystery, unformed,
Into a framework of belief, a template of faith,
Forged by other Lovers, long ago…
Now held to by millions.
And I determined, in heartfelt consideration,
To leave my Experience Molten, Unformed,
A Divine Puddle, without center or periphery,
Uninterpreted, unexplained, remaining…
A Most Beautiful Mystery, a Puddle of Grace.
Now I dance through the villages of belief,
Like a madman, unfettered, a reveling child,
Splashing through the fountains of their Beauty,
Sidestepping, deftly, the muddy pools.
I cherish those aspects of every faith,
In which this Puddle finds Reflected,
In the Water of Love Unimaginable,
The Face of The Beautiful One.
I am now, in the sense that matters most to me,
A Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, a Hindu, a Buddhist,
“I am in Love,” as Hafez declared,
“But with whom I do not know.”
