Rumi: The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing

candle as it diminishes explains, Gathering more and more is not the way. Burn, become light and heat and help. Melt.

At night, I open the window and ask the moon to come and press its face against mine.

Give back better, as rough clods return an ear of corn, a tassel, a barley awn, this sleek handful of oats.

Look inside and find where a person loves from. That’s the reality, not what they say.

YOUR DEFECTS An empty mirror and your worst destructive habits, when they are held up to each other, that’s when the real making begins. That’s what art and crafting are. A tailor needs a torn garment to practice his expertise. The trunks of trees must be cut and cut again so they can be used for fine carpentry. Your doctor must have a broken leg t

so happy! Maybe a dawn breeze has blown the veil from the face of God. A thousand new moons appear. Roses open laughing. Hearts become perfect rubies like those from Badakshan.

Someone asked once, “What is love?” “Be lost in me,” I said.

RULES ABOUT RESTRAINT There is nourishment like bread that feeds one part of your life and nourishment like light for another. There are many rules about restraint with the former, but only one rule for the latter, Never be satisfied. Eat and drink the soul substance, as a wick does with the oil it soaks in. Give light to the company.

Love is metamorphosis, rapid and radical, agile, full of vigor and levity.