Poem: Ending Your Loneliness

Poem: Ending Your Loneliness

If you are feeling alienated and alone in this world,
then where is your passion to end this feeling?
If you are feeling united with the whole,
then where is your rejoicing and sharing with all?

If what you see in yourself isn’t what you desire,
then why don’t you become that which you desire?
If you are not expressing your song to the world,
then why don’t you teach yourself how to sing?

If you can see that you are running in circles,
then why aren’t you confronting your base desires?
Instead you idly say, “I can’t believe this is happening.”
not seeing you are the causation of what happens.

You are one with the sun of the world,
yet your heart is buried under dark clouds.
To discover why darkness is what you prefer,
you must look very deeply and closely within.

If fact, you are imprisoned by all that you see.
The promise of fool’s gold easily pulls you in.
But these treasures will slip through your fingers,
the only real treasure is ending your loneliness.

We know the serpent speaks with a forked tongue,
so why not desire only one face for your being?
There is such a one hidden in your darkness,
but what are you doing to find out about it?

Even being ancient, you are still suffering,
and there is nobody to blame but yourself.
The fire of Love is abundant and ready to give,
you only need to ask to receive it.

These words of mine are rising and falling,
expressed and visible for all to see,
but for you to find the lover you want
you’ll have to speak with your heart and soul - not your lips.

~ Betsy ~
August 22, 2024

I made the above rendition from A.J. Arberry’s translation of “If you have no beloved, by Rumi”. Mystical Poems of Rumi 2, The University of Chicago Press, 1991.