“Thanks be to God, the very world that birthed us
now is bathed by wondrous nature
in a rapture, of her glorious light;
the splendor of Earth, Air, Fire, Water, now revealed.
And Humankind, highest of creatures,
endowed with Intellect’s might
so that all beasts,
winged and hoofed,
are placed under his command
And Adam’s veins are
with Art, Science, Faith;
he knows the sciences are clear
—but the music is weightiest
as a surging ocean
outweighs the very world through which it flows.

If he whose heart’s been moved
by the science of Music’s whole effect
were offered the pleasure of emperorship,
he‘d certainly ignore it
—for Man is not alone in his delight
at that sweet sound
since even animals have sacrificed themselves for it.

More stubborn than a donkey,
he who holds that Music’s “impure”;
Ignorant of beauty,
how claim acquaintance with the Lord?

Creator!
the Ocean Surges!
Permit my skiff to reach the shore
–King!
I beg what kindness
-Inayat-
thou canst afford.

—-Translated by Pir Zia Inayat-Khan from the Urdu

Beach House, Fairview Photo by Barbara Mattio

Love one another, but make not a bond of love.
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone.
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but into each other’s keeping.
For only the hand of life can contain your hearts.
And stand together yet not too near together;
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.

—-From The Prophet, Khabil Gibran

Untitled by Keith Haring. 1985. Lithograph

“The Eskimos had fifty-two names for snow because it was important to them; there ought to be as many for Love.”

            —-Margaret Atwood