Aloui Oumaima

“FORM IS ECSTATIC

There is a shimmering excitement in being sentient and shaped. The

caravan master sees his camels lost in it, nose to tail, as he himself is,

his friend, and the stranger coming toward them. A gardener watches the

sky break into song, cloud wobbly with what it is. Bud, thorn, the same.

Wind, water, wandering this essential state. Fire, ground, gone. That's

how it is with the outside. Form is ecstatic. Now imagine the inner:

soul, intelligence, the secret worlds!
And don't think the garden loses its

ecstasy in winter. It's quiet, but the roots are down there rioutous.

If someone bumps you in the street, don't be angry. Everyone careens

about in this surprise. Respond in kind. Let the knots untie, turbans

be given away. Someone drunk on this could drink a donkeyload a night.

Believer, unbeliever, cynic, lover, all combine in the spirit-form we are,

but no one yet is awake like Shams.”
― Rumi, The Soul of Rumi: A New Collection of Ecstatic Poems

“زدني بفرطِ الحبِّ فيكَ تحيُّراً .. وارحمْ حشى ً بلظي هواكَ تسعَّراً
وإذا سألتكَ أنْ أراكَ حقيقة ً.. فاسمَحْ، ولا تجعلْ جوابي: لن تَرَى
يا قلبُ!أنتَ وعدتَني في حُبّهمْ.. صبراً فحاذرْ أنْ تضيقَ وتضجرا
إنّ الغَرامَ هوَ الحَياة ، فَمُتْ بِهِ .. صَبّاً، فحقّكَ أن تَموتَ، وتُعذَرَا”
― ابن الفارض, ديوان ابن الفارض

“برزت من المنازل والقباب‏ فلم يعسر على أحد حجابي‏ فمنزلي الفضاء وسقف بيتي‏ سماء الله أو قطع السحاب فأنتَ إذا أردتَ دخلتَ بيتي عليَّ مُسَلِّماً من غَيْرِ باب لأني لم أجد مصراع باب يكون من السحاب إلى التراب”
― أبو الشمقمق

“And if all that is meaningless, I want to be cured
Of a craving for something I cannot find And of the shame of never finding it.”
― T.S. Eliot, The Cocktail Party