The Seed Cracked Open

This week I was introduced to a poem by the Sufi poet Hafiz via an experimental online retreat.

It beautifully sums up much of what I am currently exploring, and I wanted to share it.

Interestingly it is a form of Sufi poetry that always includes the name of the poet in the poem. I think the intent is so that we can substitute our names and enter the poem for ourselves.

The Seed Cracked Open
It used to be
That when I would wake in the morning
I could with confidence say,
“What am ‘I’ going to
Do?”

That was before the seed
Cracked open.

Now Hafiz is certain:

There are two of us housed
In this body,
Doing the shopping together in the market and
Tickling each other
While fixing the evening’s food.

Now when I awake
All the internal instruments play the same music:

“God, what love-mischief can ‘We’ do
For the world
Today?”

Hafiz, Translated by Daniel Ladinsky

Enjoy the perspective!