I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting

ma-salaama

I’ve just discovered your blog, though I’ve read some of your poetry before. Ma sha Allah.

Insha Allah, I’ll be back to visit again soon.

Ma’as salama,

Abdur Rahman

A pleasure to come across your blog. I found this part of your essay particularly resonant, and the duality about publishing particularly amusing (in that way of the cosmic giggle):

“I want to be a poet among the birds, or the high breakers of the sea. A poet of seismic convulsions and star-births. Star bursts! I can only really do this by expunging myself as much as possible, stepping aside to let the lightning speak on its own terms, bringing to the event only a taste for language, and a deepened and apprenticed skill in catching the fireflies of lightning in a mortal dimension so that others (and myself) can view them without burning entirely to a crisp. Prophecy and saintliness, however, doesn’t work at “poetry,” doesn’t carry a notebook in a little shoulder bag for notating instant inspirations, doesn’t type poems out or send them to magazines or hope to be published. I can’t imagine Rumi worrying about getting published!”

I relate completely to the desire to be such a poet, and like to think that I am open to being an amanuensis for the stars and all creation. But I require the notebook so I don’t lose the moment (because the moments come so quickly), and publication is, after all, just spreading the word. Rumi had followers who took notes, so publication was instant, and no problem. Would we were as lucky.

My best,

Richard

it will be a guide to me and many more, inshallah.