Sacred Poetry Collection

“Kabir says:”

The shadow of love
deepens on the body's wall

over the mind's cities
it is falling like evening

throw open the western windows
and vanish into twilight

petals flicker open
around the bright calyx

at the night's heart
your own heart

beyond night and day
and dark and light

and you're more awake now
than you've ever been

you understand
that this is love

you taste its honey on your tongue
it rolls through your body like a wave

like a shimmer of bells
like a lowing of blown conches

like a skirl of bagpipes
in the empty palace

of the sea
of splendors

Kabir says: listen friend
if you want to see God

just look into the depths
of your own body

 

Kabir (c.1440 - 1518)

© translation by Bob Hays

 

Rosemary Duxbury has set this poem for soprano and piano. World premiere by Katerina Mina (soprano) and Andrea Benecke (piano) at St Sepulchre’s (the Musicians Church) London 2016. CLICK HERE to view on YouTube.

The poem’ “Gateways” was written in Spain in 1992. Artist, photographer and poet Marion Fawlk has a longstanding relationship with the sacred nature of words, image and light. She has given readings throughout the UK in venues that include The Teilhard Sacred Centre, London, Rochester Festival of Literature and St. James, Piccadilly, London and has shared performances with international poets Sir George Trevelyan, Laurie Lee and Jay Ramsay. Her poems are published in ‘Mysterium’ (by PhotoStroud and Chrysalis Poetry) and in an anthology of sacred poetry: ‘Earth Ascending’ (edited by Jay Ramsay, published by Stride UK).