This class was taught at San Diego Writers, Ink on July 17, 2016 at the Ink Spot.
The mystic needs no middle man in his awareness of the Divine.
Jim Moreno
Cost: $60.00
First Hour 1:00 P.M. To 2: 00 P.M.
Welcome to the Sema’ Gathering, “A Time For Listening”. Take a break when you need to and don’t rush through the material. The process of Poetry that Inspires leads to Rumi, Hafez, and Kabir.
Rumi – Born: September 30, 1207, Vakhsh, Tajikistan Died: December 17, 1273, Konya, Turkey
Read the following quotes:
Coleman Barks quote: “Be loyal to your daily practice. Keep working and knocking on the door. As you’ll remember, it is said in one of Rumi’s pithy moments, that the door we’re knocking on, opens from the inside.” pithy – (of language or style) concise and forcefully expressive.
Rumi said words can sound like a poem, but not have any juice. No flavor to relish.
Rumi says read the book of your own life. That’s the story. That’s your sacred text.
Tina Petrova: Rumi is Ecstatic mystical love poetry.
Kabir Helminski: Rumi is the Shakespeare of the soul. But his poetry was not about someone with literary ambitions….it was about an opening of the heart.
Andrew Harvey: We have an orgy of greed & cruelty & exploitation of the planet. But we also have an opposite, a creativity of love midwifed by a few individuals who give birth to care and compassion. (my paraphase-Jim Moreno)
First Twenty 10:00 A.M. to 10:20 A.M
Music to Move Your Pen:
Play: Shelley Phillips Music On The Mountains
Barry & Shelley Phillips, Sweet Prospect / My Home
Great Masters of the Oud A tribute to Nasser Shamma نصير شمة
Carlos Nakai: Earth Spirit
Read:
Rumi: Both light and shadow are the dance of Love. Love has no cause, it is the astrolabe of God’s secrets. Lover and loving are inseparable and timeless. Although I may try to describe love, when I experience it, I am speechless. Although I may try to write about love, I am rendered helpless. My pen breaks, and the paper slips away at the ineffable place where lover loving and loved are one. Every moment is made glorious by the light of Love.
Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi was a 13th century Persian poet, an Islamic dervish and a Sufi mystic. He is regarded as one of the greatest spiritual masters and poetical intellects. Born in 1207 AD, he belonged to a family of learned theologians. He made use of everyday life’s circumstances to describe the spiritual world. Rumi’s poems have acquired immense popularity, especially among the Persian speakers of Afghanistan, Iran and Tajikistan. Numerous poems written by the great poet have been translated to different languages. https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/rumi-20.php
Rumi, Who Says Words With My Mouth
Antonio Machado, The Wind One Brilliant Day
Rumi, A Great Rose Tree; Rumi, One Song; Rumi, Listen To The Reed
http://rumidays.blogspot.com/2010/06/great-rose-tree.html
Play: Poetry By Antonio Machado – Last Night as I was Sleeping
On the next 2 videos, click on the 9:41 below and a link will appear. Click on the link and the video will start for you.
When the first video finishes, don’t rush into watching the next one. Go for a walk, go inside and see if the video you to write.
When you are ready, click on the 13:52 and watch the second video.
Play: Rumi and the Play of Poetry , 3:55 to 9:41
Play Rumi and the Play of Poetry , What Is The Soul? start poem at 13:52
Second Twenty 10:20 A.M. to 10:40 A.M. Write: The following poetry prompts are paraphrases of the above poems.
The prompts are open-ended sentences. Choose one prompt as the first line of your poem. Complete the prompt’s sentence and then
write a minimum 4-10 line poem in verse or in free verse.
All day I think about…
This is the day..
When I accept the invitation…
The presence that doesn’t…
My story is sacred text..
Love said when you spread your wings there are silent feathers…
“One Song”
I want a heart that is…
“Rumi” (is a title. If you choose this as your prompt, write a poem about how Rumi has inspired you with his poems.)
Third Twenty: 10:40 to 11:00 A.M. Read
Second Hour 2:00 P.M. to 3:00 P.M.
Hafez – Khwāja Shams-ud-Dīn Muḥammad Ḥāfeẓ-e Shīrāzī, known by his pen name Hafez, was a Persian poet who was a Sufi and from a working class family.
Born: 1326, Shiraz, Iran Died: 1390, Shiraz, Iran
Quotes: Even After All this time The Sun never says to the Earth, “You owe me.” Look What happens With a love like that, It lights the whole sky.
I wish I could show you when you are lonely or in darkness the astonishing light of your own being.
Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I would like to see you living in better conditions.
Play: Shelley Phillips, The Butterfly
MAQAMAT ZIRYAB Naseer Shamma
1 HOUR Sufi Relaxing Meditation Music, The Way of Rumi
Yo Yo Ma – Bach Six Cello Suites – BBC Proms 2015 (22:25)
First Twenty, 2:00 P.M. To 2:20 P.M.
Read:
Biography of Hafez: Persian lyric poet Hafiz (born Khwāja Šamsu d-Dīn Muḥammad Hāfez-e Šīrāzī) grew up in Shiraz. Very little is known about his life, but it is thought that he may have memorized the Qur’an after hearing his father recite passages. When his father died, he left school to work at a bakery and as a copyist. Hafiz became a poet at the court of Abu Ishak and also taught at a religious college. He is one of the most celebrated of the Persian poets, and his influence can be felt to this day. As the author of numerous ghazals expressing love, spirituality, and protest, he and his work continue to be important to Iranians, and many of his poems are used as proverbs or sayings. Hafiz’s tomb is in Musalla Gardens in Shiraz. The Poetry Foundation.
Hafez, Several Times in the Last Week (Click on the below link and another link will appear. Click on that link and the poem will begin.)
Hafez, First 4 poems in “I Heard God Laughing: Poems of Hope & Joy, Penguin Books, 2006, pps. 1-5.
Hafez, The Foods Turned Out
Mary Oliver, Have You Ever Tried to Enter the Long Black Branches
Jim Moreno reads Rumi’s “Who Says Words With My Mouth”
Left click on the poem in the top left corner of the Hollywood squares for Rumi & the Play of Poetry. :
Jim reads Rumi’s “Several Times in the Last Week”
Jim reads Antonio Machado’s poem, “The Wind, One Brilliant Day”
Second Twenty 2:20 P.M. To 2:40 P.M.
Write
Joy is trying to find me…
If my sentence is 1,000 years of happiness…
Will I come to the divine dancing or on a stretcher…
I always carry fresh, clear water inside…
I peek out of the hole I have dug…
Attachments
___________is not that great…
“The Inner Chamber, The Outer Stone”
Third Twenty: 2:40 A.M. to 3:00 P.M.
Read
Third Hour 3:00 P.M. to 4:00 P.M. Keep Knocking on the Door
Kabir was the great poet, saint, and weaver of medieval India. A God-intoxicated man, his teaching words & poems have become the best known and oft recited of any throughout all of India.
Robert Bly, an interpreter of Kabir, labeled him a “mouthy weaver”.
Born: 1440, Varanasi, India Died: 1518, Maghar, India
Quotes: My friend, hope for the guest while you are alive. Jump for experience while you are alive. Think and think while you are alive. If you don’t break your ropes while you are alive, you think ghosts will do it after you die?
Plunge into the truth. Find out who the Great Teacher is. Kabir says this: When the Guest is being searched for it is the intensity of the longing for the Guest that does all the work. Look at me and you will see a slave of that intensity.
Music to Play When Writing:
Classical Instrumental (Fusion) – Raag Madhuvanti – Ateetam – Tabla|Sitar|Flute|Keyboard
Rain and Native American Flutes – Relaxing Music
Barry & Shelley Phillips, The Ancients Song Of Mourning
1st Twenty: 3:00 P.M. To 3:20 P.M.
Read
Bio of Kabir:
Kabir, ( Arabic:Magnificent”“Great””Big”) (born 1440, Varanasi , Jaunpur, India—died 1518, Maghar) iconoclastic Indian poet-saint weaver revered by Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs.
The birth of Kabir remains shrouded in mystery and legend. Authorities disagree on both when he was born and who his parents were. According to one legend, his mother was a Brahman who became pregnant after a visit to a Hindu shrine. Because she was unwed, she abandoned Kabir, who was found and adopted by a Muslim weaver. That his early life began as a Muslim there is little doubt, but he was later strongly influenced by a Hindu ascetic, Ramananda.
Kabir, Friend Hope For the Guest While You Are Alive David Wagoner, Lost
Kabir, I don’t know what sort of God Kabir, Friend, Wake Up!
Kabir, There is nothing but water in the holy pools Robert Bly, Things to Think
Play: War/No More Trouble/Playing For Change/Song Around The World, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgWFxFg7-GU
Second Twenty: 3:20 P.M. To 3:40 P.M.
Write
Stand still if you are lost…
I break my ropes now in the light…
Deep inside me there is a _____________…
“The Friend, The Guest, The Beloved”
The water in the holy pools…
The Friend knocks at My Door
(Remember the knock is from the inside.)
Third Twenty: 3:40 P.M. To 4:00 P.M.
Read & Close Workshop
Quatrain For Transformation
Through nonviolence courage disciplines fear;
Love transforms hate; tolerance dissipates prejudice;
Hope comforts despair; peace replaces war; faith reconciles doubt;
Justice for all overcomes injustice for any
Jim Moreno
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