God (poems)
A Glimpse of God
By Gabriel Rosenstock
a glimpse of god
in the eyes of a cat
following a moth
Love is a lamp of God, I am its moth
By Seyh Galib
Love is a lamp of God, I am its moth;
love is a shackle, my heart is its crazy captive.
Since becoming a sharer in the secret of your glance
my heart became a friend of the friend, a stranger to the stranger.
Making no difference between dry piety and endless carouse —
such is the libertine way of the masters of ecstasy.
The black soil of the reveler’s world is full of abundance,
the sun of wisdom rises in the tavern jar.
He drinks the wine mingled with poison of the glance of those eyes;
I could be tipsy from the languor of those blue eyes.
Take care, do not neglect that sleeping dagger,
its tale is always the gossip of death.
Galib, enter the secluded palace of pleasure and see its secret,
the wise way of the daughter of the vine is something else.
God is “what is nearer to you than your neck-vein”
By Rumi
God is “what is nearer to you than your neck-vein,”
You have cast the arrow of speculation afar off.
O you, who have made ready your bow and arrows,
The game is close to you, and you shoot too far off.
The further a man shoots, the further off he is,
And the more removed from the treasure he seeks.
The philosopher kills himself with thinking,
Tell him that his back is turned to that treasure;
Tell him that the more he runs to and fro,
The further he is removed from his heart’s desire.
The Almighty says, “Make efforts in our ways,”
Not “Make efforts away from us,” O restless one.
Nature and God – I neither knew
By Emily Dickinson
Nature and God — I neither knew
Yet Both so well knew me
They startled, like Executors
Of My identity.
Yet Neither told — that I could learn —
My Secret as secure
As Herschel’s private interest
Or Mercury’s affair
Crazy Jane and God
By William Butler Yeates
That lover of a night
Came when he would,
Went in the dawning light
Whether I would or no;
Men come, men go;
All things remain in God.
Banners choke the sky;
Men-at-arms tread;
Armoured horses neigh
Where the great battle was
In the narrow pass:
All things remain in God.
Before their eyes a house
That from childhood stood
Uninhabited, ruinous,
Suddenly lit up
From door to top:
All things remain in God.
I had wild Jack for a lover;
Though like a road
That men pass over
My body makes no moan
But sings on:
All things remain in God.
The Face of God
Anonymous
Lovely face, majestic face,
face of beauty, face of flame,
the face of the Lord God of Israel
when He sits upon His throne of glory,
robed in praise upon His seat of splendour.
His beauty surpasses
the beauty of the aged,
His splendour outshines
the splendour of newly-weds
in their bridal chamber.
Whoever looks at Him
is instantly torn;
whoever glimpses His beauty
immediately melts away.
Those who serve Him today
no longer serve Him tomorrow;
those who serve Him tomorrow
no longer serve Him afterwards;
for their strength fails and their faces are charred,
their hearts reel and their eyes grow dim
at the splendour and radiance
of their king’s beauty.
There is One God
By Bawa Muhaiyadden
There is One God.
He created all beings,
And He exists beyond the beyond of religions,
Beyond the separations of race,
Religion, and philosophies.
He is beyond mind, desire, and physical vision
He is beyond the world, lust, torpor, and illusion.
God resides in that spotlessly pure place known as the heart
And sees and knows everything.
He sees each and every heart and mind and understands all things.
We Awaken In Christ’s Body
By Syemeon
We awaken in Christ’s body
as Christ awakens our bodies,
and my poor hand is Christ, He enters
my foot, and is infinitely me.
I move my hand, and wonderfully
my hand becomes Christ, becomes all of Him
(for God is indivisibly
whole, seamless in His Godhood).
I move my foot, and at once
He appears like a flash of lightning.
Do my words seem blasphemous? — Then
open your heart to Him
and let yourself receive the one
who is opening to you so deeply.
For if we genuinely love Him,
we wake up inside Christ’s body
where all our body, all over,
every most hidden part of it,
is realized in joy as Him,
and He makes us, utterly, real,
and everything that is hurt, everything
that seemed to us dark, harsh, shameful,
maimed, ugly, irreparably
damaged, is in Him transformed
and recognized as whole, as lovely,
and radiant in His light
he awakens as the Beloved
in every last part of our body.
The Odes of Solomon
My heart was split, and a flower
appeared: and grace sprang up;
and it bore fruit for my God.
You split me, tore my heart
open, filled me with love.
You poured your spirit into me;
I knew you as I know myself.
My eyes are radiant with your spirit;
my nostrils fill with your fragrance.
My ears delight in your music,
and my face is covered with your dew.
Blessed are the men and women
who are planted on your earth, in your garden,
who grow as your trees and flowers grow,
who transform their darkness to light.
Their roots plunge into darkness;
their faces turn toward the light.
There is infinite space in your garden;
all men, all women are welcome here;
all they need do is enter.
Psalm 131
The Bible
My mind is not noisy with desires, Lord,
and my heart has satisfied its longing.
I do not care about religion
or anything that is not you.
I have soothed and quieted my soul,
like a child at its mother’s breast.
My soul is peaceful as a child
sleeping in its mother’s arms.
Psalm 19
The Bible
God’s universe is perfect,
awing the mind.
God’s truth is subtle,
baffling the intellect.
God’s law is complete,
quickening the breath.
God’s compassion is fathomless,
refreshing the soul.
God’s justice is absolute,
lightening up the eyes.
God’s love is radiant,
rejoicing the heart,
more precious than the finest gold,
sweeter than honey from the comb.
God Is a Pure No-Thing
By Angelus Silesius
God is a pure no-thing,
concealed in now and here:
the less you reach for him,
the more he will appear.
One Must Go Beyond God
By Angelus Silesius
Where is my dewelling place? Where I can never stand.
Where is my final goal, toward which I should ascend?
It is beyond all place. What should my quest then be?
I must, transcending God, into the desert flee.
It Depends On You
By Angelus Silesius
If in your heart you make
a manager for this birth,
then God will one again
become a child on earth.
God Lives There
By Rumi
The inner consciousness
of the saint
is the true mosque
where all should worship,
God lives there.
God’s Grandeur
By Gerard Manley Hopkins
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
I Travelled a Long Way Seeking God
By Lalleshwari
I traveled a long way seeking God,
but when I finally gave up and turned back,
there He was, within me!
O Lalli!
Now why do you wander
like a beggar?
Make some effort,
and He will grant you
a vision of Himself
in the form of bliss
in your heart.
God Pursues Me Everywhere
By Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
God pursues me everywhere,
Enmeshes me in glances,
And blinds my sightless back like flaming sun.
God, like a forest dense, pursues me.
My lips are ever tender, mute, so amazed,
So like a child lost in an ancient sacred grove.
God pursues me like a silent shudder.
I wish for tranquility and rest — He urges; come!
And see — how visions walk like the homeless on the streets.
My thoughts walk about like a vagrant mystery —
Walks through the world’s long corridor.
At times I see God’s featureless face hovering over me.
God pursues me in the streetcars and cafes
Every shining apple is my crystal sphere to see
How mysteries are born and vision came to be.
i thank You God for most this amazing day
By e.e. cummings
i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and love and wings and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
The pot is God
By Basava
The pot is a God. The winnowing
fan is a God. The stone in the
street is a God. The comb is a
God. The bowstring is also a
God. The bushel is a God and the
spouted cup is a God.
Gods, gods, there are so many
there’s no place left
for a foot.
There is only
one God. He is our Lord
of the Meeting Rivers.
O God, Another Night Is Passing Away
By Rabia al-Basri
O God, Another Night is passing away,
Another Day is rising —
Tell me that I have spent the Night well so I can be at peace,
Or that I have wasted it, so I can mourn for what is lost.
I swear that ever since the first day You brought me back to life,
The day You became my Friend,
I have not slept —
And even if You drive me from your door,
I swear again that we will never be separated.
Because You are alive in my heart.
I Touch God In My Song
By Rabindranath Tagore
I touch God in my song
as the hill touches the far-away sea
with its waterfall.
The butterfly counts not months but moments,
and has time enough.
Let my love, like sunlight, surround you
and yet give you illumined freedom.
Love remains a secret even when spoken,
for only a lover truly knows that he is loved.
Emancipation from the bondage of the soil
is no freedom for thee.
In love I pay my endless debt to thee
for what thou art.
God, Whose Love and Joy
By Angelus Silesius
God, whose love and joy
are present everywhere,
can’t come to visit you
unless you aren’t there.
Only God I Saw
By Baba Kuhi of Shiraz
In the market, in the cloister–only God I saw.
In the valley and on the mountain–only God I saw.
Him I have seen beside me oft in tribulation;
In favour and in fortune–only God I saw.
In prayer and fasting, in praise and contemplation,
In the religion of the Prophet–only God I saw.
Neither soul nor body, accident nor substance,
Qualities nor causes–only God I saw.
I oped mine eyes and by the light of His face around me
In all the eye discovered–only God I saw.
Like a candle I was melting in His fire:
Amidst the flames outflashing–only God I saw.
Myself with mine own eyes I saw most clearly,
But when I looked with God’s eyes–only God I saw.
I passed away into nothingness, I vanished,
And lo, I was the All-living–only God I saw.
The Love of God, Unutterable and Perfect
By Dante Alighieri
The love of God, unutterable and perfect,
flows into a pure soul the way that light
rushes into a transparent object.
The more love that it finds, the more it gives
itself; so that, as we grow clear and open,
the more complete the joy of heaven is.
And the more souls who resonate together,
the greater the intensity of their love,
and, mirror-like, each soul reflects the other.
God Is Born
By D.H. Lawrence
The history of the cosmos
is the history of the struggle of becoming.
When the dim flux of unformed life
struggled, convulsed back and forth upon itself,
and broke at last into light and dark
came into existence as light,
came into existence as cold shadow
then every atom of the cosmos trembled with delight.
Behold, God is born!
He is bright light!
He is pitch dark and cold!
Be Not Curious About God
By Walt Whitman
And I say to mankind, Be not curious about God,
For I who am curious about each am not curious about God,
(No array of terms can say how much I am at peace about God and about death.)
I hear and behold God in every object, yet understand God not in the least,
Nor do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself.
Why should I wish to see God better than this day?
I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four, and each moment then,
In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass,
I find letters from God dropt in the street, and every one is sign’d by God’s name,
And I leave them where they are, for I know that wheresoe’er I go,
Others will punctually come for ever and ever.
Dear God
By Saint Francis of Assisi
Dear God, please reveal to us
your sublime
beauty
that is everywhere, everywhere, everywhere,
so that we will never again
feel frightened.
My divine love, my love,
please let us touch
your face.
God Would Kneel Down
By Saint Francis of Assisi
I think God might be a little prejudiced.
For once He asked me to join Him on a walk
through this world,
and we gazed into every heart on this earth,
and I noticed He lingered a bit longer
before any face that was
weeping,
and before any eyes that were
laughing.
And sometimes when we passed
a soul in worship
God too would kneel
down.
I have come to learn: God
adores His
creation.
Infinite Love
By Julian of Norwich
Because of the great,
infinite love which God has for all humankind,
he makes no distinction in love between the blessed soul of Christ
and the lowliest of the souls that are to be saved . . . .
We should highly rejoice that God dwells in our soul
and still more highly should we rejoice that our soul dwells in God.
Our soul is made to be God’s dwelling place,
and the dwelling place of our soul
is God who was never made.
God’s Creation
By Julian of Norwich
For a man regards some deeds as well done and some as evil,
and our Lord does not regard them so,
for everything which exists in nature is of God’s creation,
so that everything which is done has the property of being God’s doing.
Expands His Being
By Meister Eckhart
All beings
are words of God,
His music, His
art.
Sacred books we are, for the infinite camps in our souls.
Every act reveals God and expands His being.
I know that may be hard
to comprehend.
All creatures are doing their best
to help God in His birth
of Himself.
Enough talk for the night.
He is laboring in me;
I need to be silent
for a while,
worlds are forming
in my heart.
God Is Always Ready
By Meister Eckhart
God is always ready,
but we are very unready;
God is near to us,
but we are far from Him;
God is within, but we are without;
God is at home, but we are strangers.
I AM
By Meister Eckhart
I AM can be spoken by no creature,
but by God alone.
I must become God and
God must become me, so completely that
we share the same “I” eternally.
Our truest “I” is God.
To Love Is To Reach God
By Rumi
To Love is to reach GOD.
Never will a Lover’s chest feel any sorrow.
Never will a Lover’s robe be touched by mortals.
Never will a Lover’s body be found buried in the earth.
To Love is to reach God.
The God Who Only Knows Four Words
By Hafiz
Every Child Has known God,
Not the God of names,
Not the God of don’ts,
Not the God who ever does
Anything weird,
But the God who only knows four words
And keeps repeating them, saying:
“Come dance with Me.”
Come Dance.
The Stairway of Existence
By Hafiz
We
Are not
In pursuit of formalities
Or fake religious
Laws,
For through the stairway of existence
We have come to God’s
Door.
We are
People who need to love, because
Love is the soul’s life,
Love is simply creation’s greatest joy.
Through
The stairway of existence,
O, through the stairway of existence, Hafiz
Have
You now come,
Have we all now come to
The Beloved’s
Door.
God Just Came Near
By Hafiz
No
One
In need of love
Can sit with my verse for
an hour
And then walk away without carrying
Golden tools,
And feeling that God
Just came
Near.
I Rain
By Hafiz
I rain
Because your meadows call
For God.
I weave light into words so that
When your mind holds them
Your eyes will relinquish their sadness,
Turn bright, a little brighter, giving to us
The way a candle does
To the dark.
I have wrapped my laughter like a birthday gift
And left it beside your bed.
I have planted the wisdom in my heart
Next to every signpost in the sky.
A wealthy man
Often becomes eccentric,
A divine crazed soul
Is transformed into infinite generosity
Tying gold sacks of gratuity
To the dangling feet of moons, planets, ecstatic
Midair dervishes, and singing birds.
I speak
Because every cell in your body
Is reaching out
For God.
Venus Just Asked Me
By Hafiz
Perhaps for just one minute out of the day
it may be of value to torture yourself with thoughts like:
“I should be doing a hell of a lot more with my life than I am —
‘cause I’m so damn talented.
“But remember … one minute.
With all the rest of your time, it would be best to try
to look upon yourself more as God does.
For He knows your true royal nature
God is never confused and can see Only Himself in you.
My dear Venus just leaned down and asked me
to tell you a secret to confess she’s just a mirrowho has been stealing your light and music for centuries
She knows, as does Hafiz,
that you are the sole heir to The King.
Laughter
By Hafiz
What is laughter? What is laughter?
It is God waking up! O it is God waking up!
It is the sun poking its sweet head out
From behind a cloud
You have been carrying too long,
Veiling your eyes and heart.
If It Is Not Too Dark
By Hafiz
Let’s stop reading about God –
We will never understand Him.
Jump to your feet, wave your fists,
Threaten and warn the whole Universe
That your heart can no longer live
Without real love!
God Is Singing Within Your Heart
Anonymous
I know who you are, I know who I am
I know the truth and the meaning of love.
God is singing within your heart
breathing inside your breath
more close than a hand within a glove
or a thought within the head.
If you listen, my friend, with an open heart
you will know this declaration’s true
the Truth? You forgot some time ago
the surprise – the revelation’s you
you wrote this poem
yes, you
back then
when your heart was filled with ecstasy
blind drunk on the clear wine of love
God, God, God
By Yogananda
From the depth of slumber,
As I ascend the spiral stairway of wakefulness,
I whisper
God, God, God!
Thou art the food and when I break my fast
Of nightly separation from Thee
I taste thee and mentally say
God, God, God!
No matter where I go, the spotlight of my mind
Ever keeps turning on Thee;
And in the battle dim of activity my silent war cry
Is ever;
God, God, God!
To God
By Aimee Davies
I don’t know,
I really don’t know,
I’m tired of pretending I do.
Pretending I know what to do
Or the cause of why I feel so blue.
I’m so tired,
I’m so exhausted,
All I can do is laugh.
I’ve been searching for You,
I’ve been searching for what’s true,
Who knew, you are my very heart!
I don’t know the logistics of You,
Or how many galaxies you are.
I can’t give any more smart answers,
I am dumber to the world than ever.
For I cry at a feather,
I weep for a falling leaf,
I see you in everything.
I don’t know much,
But one thing I do,
This whole world,
Is a reflection of You.
A Lovely Day
By Aimee Davies
What a lovely day,
The birds are out to play,
The flowers are here to stay.
Oh my, what a lovely day,
Sister sun is shining,
Brother moon will be out soon.
Oh Lord, what a lovely day,
Father sky is vast and blue,
Mother Life makes all new.
Oh God, what a lovely day,
Grandfather wind blows,
Grandma water flows.
What a lovely day,
All creatures sing in joy,
To the tune of the Lord.
I am the Lords creature,
I feel His love,
His peace,
Awakening my heart.
Fallen Unto Grace
By Aimee Davies
Let us be like fallen leaves.
Free to move to God’s eternal dance.
For the sweetest moments arise spontaneously,
disappearing into Eternity.
Footsteps
By Anthony Lambert
Through the loving ways that people connect;
laughter between friends, a couple holding hands,
the generosity of a stranger, the smile of a child.
Through the gift of knowing I am enough, no matter what.
Through my highest thoughts, my truest words, my kindest deeds.
Through the wonders of sunsets and mountains, ocean waves, dolphins and daffodils.
Through the uplifting beauty of music, art and poetry.
Through the infiniteness of time and space and the intricacies of atoms and less.
Through the mighty power of silence and the peace that stillness brings.
Through these things,
I see the footprints of a benevolent Mystery unfolding
and I look out into the vast night sky
and I smile at the stars and the moon
content in the knowledge
that the universe smiles back.
