A collection of poetry by the thirteenth century Sufi saint cover topics ranging from emptiness and silence to elegance and majesty.

The Tavern: Whoever Brought Me Here Will Have to Take Me Home -- On The Tavern -- Who Says Words with My Mouth? -- We have a huge barrel of wine -- A Community of the Spirit -- There's a strange frenzy in my head -- Drunks fear the police -- A Children's Game -- Gone, inner and outer -- The wine we really drink -- The Many Wines -- Special Plates -- Burnt Kabob -- The New Rule -- This that is tormented -- Bewilderment: I Have Five Things to Say -- On Bewilderment -- I Have Five Things to Say -- Acts of Helplessness -- Saladin's Begging Bowl -- Late, by myself -- Does sunset sometimes look -- Be Melting Snow -- The Fragile Vial -- Where Are We? -- The Friend comes into my body -- There is a light seed grain -- Do you think I know -- Emptiness and Silence: The Night Air -- On Silence -- The Reed Flute's Song -- A Thirsty Fish -- Enough Words? -- This World Which Is Made of Our Love for Emptiness -- Quietness -- Sanai -- A Just-Finishing Candle -- Craftsmanship and Emptiness -- Emptiness -- When you are with everyone but me -- No Flag -- The Food Sack -- The Night Air -- Only Breath -- There is a way between voice -- Spring Giddiness: Stand in the Wake of This Chattering and Grow Airy -- On Spring Giddiness -- Spring -- Where Everything Is Music -- A Great Wagon -- Today, like every other day -- Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing -- The breeze at dawn -- I would love to kiss you -- Daylight, full of small dancing particles -- They try to say what you are -- Come to the orchard in Spring -- Spring Is Christ -- Shreds of Steam -- The Steambath -- The Ground Cries Out -- Unfold Your Own Myth -- Not a Day on Any Calendar -- Flutes for Dancing -- The Shape of My Thongue -- The Grasses -- The Sheikh Who Played with Children -- Let the lover be disgraceful -- All day and night, music -- Feeling Separation: Don't Come Near Me -- On Separation -- Sometimes I Forget Completely -- A Man and a Woman Arguing -- A night full of talking that hurts -- An Empty Garlic -- The Diver's Clothes Lying Empty -- Red Shirt -- My Worst Habit -- Don't let your throat tighten -- Dissolver of Sugar -- Pale sunlight -- Controlling the Desire-Body: How Did You Kill Your Rooster, Husam? -- On The Desire-Body -- Sexual Urgency, What a Woman's Laughter Can Do, and the Nature of True Virility -- Tattooing in Qazwin -- The Center of the Fire -- Someone who goes with half a loaf -- The mystery does not get clearer -- Muhammad and the Huge Eater -- Fasting -- Bismillah -- Wean Yourself -- After the Meditation -- The Dog in the Doorway -- The light you give off -- Tending Two Shops -- Think that you're gliding out -- Sohbet: Meetings on the Riverbank -- On Sohbet -- Talking in the Night -- Talking Through the Door -- A Mouse and a Frog -- The Long String -- The Force of Friendship -- The Vigil -- Two Friends -- The Servant Who Loved His Prayers -- Imra'u 'l-Qays -- All Rivers at Once -- The Blocked Road -- A Babbling Child -- Who sees inside from outside? -- Constant Conversation -- Bonfire at Midnight -- In Between Stories -- The Question -- The Music -- I saw you last night in the gathering -- The Tent -- Friend, our closeness is this -- Listen to presences -- Being a Lover: The Sunrise Ruby -- On Being A Lover -- The Sunrise Ruby -- Water from Your Spring -- You Sweep the Floor -- Each Note -- Granite and Wineglass -- Buoyancy -- Music Master -- When I am with you -- The minute I heard my first love story -- We are the mirror as well as the face -- I want to hold you close -- Someone Digging in the Ground -- The Phrasing Must Change -- The Guest House -- The Pickaxe: Getting to the Treasure Beneath the Foundation -- On The Pickaxe -- Who Makes These Changes? -- Why Wine Is Forbidden -- On Resurrection Day -- The Dream That Must Be Interpreted -- The Pickaxe -- Zikr -- The Core of Masculinity -- I honor those who try -- Dervish at the Door -- Art as Flirtation with Surrender: Wanting New Silk Harp Strings -- On Flirtation -- Omar and the Old Poet -- An Egypt That Doesn't Exist -- Chinese Art and Greek Art -- In your light I learn -- Drumsound rises on the air -- Are you jealous of the ocean's generosity? -- Union: Gnats Inside the Wind -- On Union -- Gnats Inside the Wind -- Meadowsounds -- Ayaz and the King's Pearl -- Put This Design in Your Carpet -- Hallaj -- We Three -- I am filled with you -- The Sheikh: I Have Such a Teacher -- On The Sheikh -- Chickpea to Cook -- I Have Such a Teacher -- Sublime Generosity -- Like This -- A Bowl -- Wax -- No Room for Form -- Childhood Friends -- The Mouse and the Camel -- These gifts from the Friend -- The Lame Goat -- Recognizing Elegance: Your Reasonable Father -- On Elegance -- Father Reason -- A craftsman pulled a reed -- Humble living does not diminish -- New Moon, Hilal -- Body Intelligence -- The Seed Market -- The Howling Necessity: Cry Out in Your Weakness -- On Howling -- Love Dogs -- Cry Out in Your Weakness -- The Debtor Sheikh -- You that come to birth -- Teaching Stories: How the Unseen World Works -- On The Unseen -- Nasuh -- Moses and the Shepherd -- Joy at Sudden Disappointment -- If the beloved is everywhere -- Story Water -- Rough Metaphors: More Teaching Stories -- On Roughness -- Rough Metaphors -- Birdwings -- I Come Before Dawn -- Checkmate -- An Awkward Comparison -- Two Kinds of Intelligence -- Two Ways of Running -- The Importance of Gourdcrafting -- Breadmaking -- Solomon Poems: The Far Mosque -- On Solomon -- Sheba's Gifts to Solomon -- Solomon to Sheba -- Sheba's Hesitation -- Sheba's Throne -- Solomon's Crooked Crown -- The Far Mosque -- A bird delegation came to Solomon -- The Three Fish: Gamble Everything for Love -- On Gambling -- If you want what visible reality -- Gamble everything -- In a boat down a fast-running creek -- The Three Fish -- Send the Chaperones Away -- When I remember your love -- All our lives we've looked -- The Gift of Water -- Jesus Poems: The Population of the World -- On Jesus -- I called through your door -- Jesus on the Lean Donkey -- What Jesus Runs Away From -- Christ is the population -- There's Nothing Ahead -- In Baghdad, Dreaming of Cairo: More Teaching Stories -- On Baghdad -- In Baghdad, Dreaming of Cairo: In Cairo, Dreaming of Baghdad -- Dying, Laughing -- Human Honesty -- Dalqak's Message -- The Cat and the Meat -- Sheikh Kharraqani and His Wretched Wife -- The Snake-Catcher and the Frozen Snake -- Polishing the Mirror -- Ali in Battle -- Beginning and End: The Stories That Frame the Mathnawi -- On The Frame -- The King and the Handmaiden and the Doctor -- The Three Brothers and the Chinese Princess -- Green Ears Everywhere: Children Running Through -- On Children Running Through -- I used to be shy -- Green Ears -- Birdsong brings relief -- The way of love is not -- Let your throat-song -- I have phrases and whole pages -- You've so distracted me -- I'm Not Saying This Right -- The Least Figure -- I reach for a piece of wood -- Being Woven: Communal Practice -- On Being Woven -- Of Being Woven -- The Waterwheel -- The Granary Floor -- A Song About a Donkey -- Elephant in the Dark -- Wished-For Song: Secret Practices -- On Secrecy -- A Wished-For Song -- A Basket of Fresh Bread -- When We Pray Alone -- One Who Wraps Himself -- Deliberation -- The Private Banquet -- We are the night ocean -- Which is worth more, a crowd -- Majesty: This We Have Now -- On Majesty -- This We Have Now -- The Visions of Daquqi -- The Worm's Waking -- The Freshness -- Judge a Moth by the Beauty of Its Candle -- The morning wind spreads -- Slave, be aware -- Evolutionary Intelligence: Say I Am You -- On Evolving -- A Dove in the Eaves -- We have this way of talking -- This piece of food -- In the slaughterhouse of love -- The Witness, the Darling -- In the Arc of Your Mallet -- Unmarked Boxes -- The Milk of Millennia -- The You Pronoun -- Birdsong from Inside the Egg -- Say I Am You -- The Turn: Dance in Your Blood -- On The Turn -- Inside water, a waterwheel -- You have said what you are -- A secret turning in us -- This moment this love comes to rest -- Keep walking, though there's no place -- Walk to the well -- I circle your nest -- No better love than love -- Some nights stay up -- I am so small -- When you feel your lips -- The sun is love -- Something opens our wings -- Held like this -- I stand up, and this one of me -- I have lived on the lip -- Real value comes with madness -- Dance, when you're broken open -- Notes -- A Note on These Translations and a Few Recipes.