love… by kahlil gibran
when love beckons to you, follow him,
though his ways are hard and steep.
and when his wings enfold you yield to him,
though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
and when he speaks to you believe in him,
though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays
waste the garden.
for even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. even as he is for
your growth so is he for your pruning.
even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches
that quiver in the sun,
so shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.
like sheavers of corn he gathers you unto himself.
he threshes you to make you naked.
he shifts you to free you from your husks.
he grinds you to whiteness.
he kneads you until you are pliant;
and then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred
bread for God’s sacred feast.
all these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your
heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life’s heart.
for if in your fear you would seek only love’s peace and love’s pleasure,
then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of
love’s threshing- floor.
into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter,
and weep, but not all of your tears.
love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
love posseses not nor wuld it be possesed;
for love is sufficient unto itself.
love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
but if you love and must needs have desire, let these be your desires:
to melt and be like a running brook that sing its melody to the night.
to know the pain of too much tenderness.
to be wounded by your own understanding of love;
and to bleed willingly and joyfully.
to wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for
another day of loving;
to rest at the noon hour and meditate at love’s ecstacy;
to return home at eventide with gratitude;
and then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song
of praise upon your lips.
THE PROPHET by Kahlil Gibran
December 13th, 2005 at 10:04 am
How nice and appropriate. Here is my fave Kahlil:
Said one oyster to a neighboring oyster, “I have a very great pain within me. It is heavy and round and I am in distress.”
And the other oyster replied with haughty complacence, “Praise be to the heavens and to the sea, I have no pain within me. I am well and whole both within and without.”
At that moment a crab was passing by and heard the two oysters, and he said to the one who was well and whole both within and without, “Yes, you are well and whole; but the pain that your neighbor bears is a pearl of exceeding beauty.”