Artist

Alexander Averin

Friday 17 December 2010

Inner Wakefulness





As dusk descends
a field of deep snow
becomes a sea.


Inner Wakefulness



This place is a dream
only a sleeper considers it real.
Then death comes like dawn
and you wake up laughing
at what you thought
was your grief.


A man goes to sleep in the town
where he has always lived
and he dreams
he's living in another town.
In the dream he doesn't remember
the town he's sleeping in his bed in,
he believes the reality
of the dream town.

The world is that kind of sleep.
Humankind is being led
along an evolving course,
through this migration
of intelligences
and though we seem
to be sleeping
there is an inner wakefulness,
that directs the dream

and that will eventually
startle us back
to the truth of
who we are.


From The Essential Rumi,
translated by Coleman Barks
 

5 comments:

Marion Williams-Bennett said...

this is beautiful.

I am working hard at listening to my inner wakefulness, but their are times when I lose my way.

Your post was at thoughtful reminder on the need to keep finding my way back to it.

Molly said...

The picture and the words go so beautifully together

The bike shed said...

Best line for me:

you wake up laughing
at what you thought
was your grief.

Very good; wish I'd written that.

Yolanda said...

Really enjoyed this.Hope you have a lovely weekend.

CAMILLA said...

Such a wonderful beautiful poem Cait, thank you for sharing with us.

xx