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zeemonodee's review against another edition
4.0
As poignant and inspiring and deep as one would expect from Rumi. This is one to be savored, to be treasured and returned to time and time again, because its inherent wisdom might apply in one way today, and then later in life, you find the same thing conveys a different message to you, which might be none less enlightening and on point
ioana_voica's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
A book that felt like truth.
will_campbell__'s review against another edition
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
4.25
Good book. Some poems were very enlightening but others were hard to understand. Best to read each one twice. Will read again.
levininja's review against another edition
4.0
sell your cleverness and
buy bewilderment
cleverness is skepticism
bewilderment is vision
As soon as I read this first poem in this book, I immediately memorized it and mulled over it the next couple of days. I was hooked. There are many others that have had similar profound impact on me, and with so few words.
As I read these I got the idea that this was the perfect book to read intermittently, just one or so per day. That gave me the idea to do an experiment and post short poems as reading status updates here on GR and see what happened. There wasn’t any spectacular response, but I like the thought that maybe, just maybe, somebody was able to pause their frenetic day and have a peaceful moment of engaging in the divine because of one of those updates.
This particular book is one of a series of similar books which you can find at Barnes and Noble, each one small, hardback, beautifully decorated inside and out with a particular art style that I would describe as a minimalistic version of stained glass windows or mosaics. The series includes Love Poems of Rumi, Friendship Poems of Rumi, and this one: Spiritual Poems of Rumi.
I went into this book knowing virtually nothing about Rumi or his poetry. Rumi was an Islamic mystic who was part of a particular group known as the whirling dervishes: men who, in a trance, would spin for long periods of time as a sort of mindfulness or meditation. Rumi was known for delivering his poetry to his disciples while whirling, and as you read a poem you can picture how each short line is just long enough for him to utter between breaths while facing the students before quickly rotating away.
don’t look at yourself
how ugly or beautiful you are
look at your love (inside) instead
look at the one you love
Most of his poems are like the ones above: profound and tightly packed, no punctuation, no capitalization, always has a twist, often has a question, although it’s not always explicit. For me this kind of poetry is great. If a poem is ambiguously written for me to read my own meaning into it, then I like it to be really short, something I can go over and over and really think about the whole thing as one body. These are perfect.
like an ant
in a wheat harvest
we are happy
when carrying a burden
greater than ourselves
He has a way of saying something that seems on face value to be ridiculous, but if you take the time to think about it and ask yourself “in what sense could it be that this is true?” you find great meaning in it. I may or may not arrive at the same exact interpretation that Rumi had in mind, but this kind of reflection is incredibly valuable because it causes me to contemplate the true nature of the spiritual world, the essence of life, and the search for meaning. The fact that these poems caused me to do that multiple times means this is a great work of art. I consider these great jumping off points for meditation.
Did I have the same experience with all of these poems? No. Some of them fell flat for me. Most notably, poems about “love” but which I read as being more about infatuation, losing yourself in another. He seems to deify his lover. This I can’t get into.
I was also confused by poems about drunkenness. I found out from my friend Werner that referring to drunkenness is a motif in Muslim literature that is not meant to be taken literally; it refers to the intoxication of spiritual experiences. I'll have to re-read those poems to see if they resonate more now that I know that.
Despite the poems that were misses for me, it was easy enough to just go on to the next poem until I found one that did resonate. And so I would just skim until I found the next deep poem and then camp out and have my next revelatory experience.
If there was ever a book that put me in the mindset of “it’s not about the destination but the journey,” then it’s this one. Less concerned with “getting it right,” whatever that’s supposed to mean, and instead with getting to the business of really living as a true human being.
I will leave you with two more poems:
if you abandon for a little while
your ego and greed
tear down your shield
rise with a quest
to unite with the divine
what do you think will happen
get up and do some good
for someone now
the universe will surely
safekeep your act
everyone has left his
belongings and is gone
you too
except
for what good
you have done
buy bewilderment
cleverness is skepticism
bewilderment is vision
As soon as I read this first poem in this book, I immediately memorized it and mulled over it the next couple of days. I was hooked. There are many others that have had similar profound impact on me, and with so few words.
As I read these I got the idea that this was the perfect book to read intermittently, just one or so per day. That gave me the idea to do an experiment and post short poems as reading status updates here on GR and see what happened. There wasn’t any spectacular response, but I like the thought that maybe, just maybe, somebody was able to pause their frenetic day and have a peaceful moment of engaging in the divine because of one of those updates.
This particular book is one of a series of similar books which you can find at Barnes and Noble, each one small, hardback, beautifully decorated inside and out with a particular art style that I would describe as a minimalistic version of stained glass windows or mosaics. The series includes Love Poems of Rumi, Friendship Poems of Rumi, and this one: Spiritual Poems of Rumi.
I went into this book knowing virtually nothing about Rumi or his poetry. Rumi was an Islamic mystic who was part of a particular group known as the whirling dervishes: men who, in a trance, would spin for long periods of time as a sort of mindfulness or meditation. Rumi was known for delivering his poetry to his disciples while whirling, and as you read a poem you can picture how each short line is just long enough for him to utter between breaths while facing the students before quickly rotating away.
don’t look at yourself
how ugly or beautiful you are
look at your love (inside) instead
look at the one you love
Most of his poems are like the ones above: profound and tightly packed, no punctuation, no capitalization, always has a twist, often has a question, although it’s not always explicit. For me this kind of poetry is great. If a poem is ambiguously written for me to read my own meaning into it, then I like it to be really short, something I can go over and over and really think about the whole thing as one body. These are perfect.
like an ant
in a wheat harvest
we are happy
when carrying a burden
greater than ourselves
He has a way of saying something that seems on face value to be ridiculous, but if you take the time to think about it and ask yourself “in what sense could it be that this is true?” you find great meaning in it. I may or may not arrive at the same exact interpretation that Rumi had in mind, but this kind of reflection is incredibly valuable because it causes me to contemplate the true nature of the spiritual world, the essence of life, and the search for meaning. The fact that these poems caused me to do that multiple times means this is a great work of art. I consider these great jumping off points for meditation.
Did I have the same experience with all of these poems? No. Some of them fell flat for me. Most notably, poems about “love” but which I read as being more about infatuation, losing yourself in another. He seems to deify his lover. This I can’t get into.
I was also confused by poems about drunkenness. I found out from my friend Werner that referring to drunkenness is a motif in Muslim literature that is not meant to be taken literally; it refers to the intoxication of spiritual experiences. I'll have to re-read those poems to see if they resonate more now that I know that.
Despite the poems that were misses for me, it was easy enough to just go on to the next poem until I found one that did resonate. And so I would just skim until I found the next deep poem and then camp out and have my next revelatory experience.
If there was ever a book that put me in the mindset of “it’s not about the destination but the journey,” then it’s this one. Less concerned with “getting it right,” whatever that’s supposed to mean, and instead with getting to the business of really living as a true human being.
I will leave you with two more poems:
if you abandon for a little while
your ego and greed
tear down your shield
rise with a quest
to unite with the divine
what do you think will happen
get up and do some good
for someone now
the universe will surely
safekeep your act
everyone has left his
belongings and is gone
you too
except
for what good
you have done
hanna_chandler's review against another edition
4.0
This book was fun, light, and very enjoyable! It's not hard to get through but it does have some very good content that I will most definitely remember. I would definitely recommend this to someone that doesn't read a lot of poetry.