When you get what you want in your struggle for pelf, And the world makes you King for a day, Then go to the mirror and look at yourself, And see what that guy has to say.
For it isn’t your Father, or Mother, or Wife, Who judgement upon you must pass. The feller whose verdict counts most in your life Is the guy staring back from the glass.
He’s the feller to please, never mind all the rest, For he’s with you clear up to the end, And you’ve passed your most dangerous, difficult test If the guy in the glass is your friend.
You may be like Jack Horner and “chisel” a plum, And think you’re a wonderful guy, But the man in the glass says you’re only a bum If you can’t look him straight in the eye.
You can fool the whole world down the pathway of years, And get pats on the back as you pass, But your final reward will be heartaches and tears If you’ve cheated the guy in the glass.
HT: Elizabeth M
Poem can be found on theguyintheglass.com, on whyhomeschool.blogspot.com, and on other sites around the Internet.
ALL THINGS DESIRE
All things desire to be like God,
and infinite space is a mirror
that tries
to reflect His
body.
But it can’t.
All that infinite existence can show us of Him
is only an atom of God’s
being.
God stood behind Himself one night and cast a
brilliant shadow from which creation
came.
Even this shadow is such a flame that
moths consume their selves in it every second –
with their sacred passion to possess
beautiful
forms.
Existence mirrors God the best it can,
though how arrogant for any image in that mirror,
for any human being, to
think they know
His will;
for His will has never been spoken,
His voice would ignite
the earth’s wings
and all upon
it.
We invent truths about God to protect ourselves
from the wolf’s cries we hear
and make.
All things desire to be like God,
all things desire to
love.
From “Love Poems From God” by Daniel Ladinsky.
PERFECT EQUANIMITY
Look how a mirror
will reflect with perfect equanimity
all actions
before
it.
There is no act in this world
that will ever cause the mirror to look away.
There is no act in this world that will
ever make the mirror
say “no.”
The mirror, like perfect love, will just keep giving
of itself to all
before
it.
How did the mirror ever get like that, so polite,
so grand, so compassionate?
It watched God.
Yes, the mirror remembers the Beloved
looking into itself as the Beloved shaped existence’s heart
and the mirror’s
soul.
My eye has the nature of God.
Hafiz looks upon all with perfect equanimity,
as do my words,
dear.
My poems will never tell you no,
because the Mirror is
not like
that,
and if God ever hits you with a don’t –
He has His fingers crossed,
He is just fibbing
for your own
good.
From “Love Poems From God” by Daniel Ladinsky.
Hafiz Links
The Alchemy of Presence
We are the mirror as well as the face in it..
We are tasting the taste this minute of eternity.
We are pain and what cures pain both.
We are the sweet cold water and the jar that pours.
You would rather throw stones at a mirror?
I am your mirror, and here are the stones.
Rumi