Introduction To An Open Field

Because it is National Poetry Month, and because I do not have a new poem to offer at the moment, here is something from the archives.

Eight hundred years ago, A Sufi monk wrote a book of poems that he called El Hadiqa, or Walled Gardens.  He wrote from his faith’s perspective, in his language and to the people of his Persian culture, and yet, as poetry makes possible, the poet, Hakim Sanai, speaks to me.

He has inspired me to rewrite some of his poems, which poetry also allows.  I am not a translator, like David Pendleberry, who gives me my opening lines, but I have tried to transcribe some of the monk's faith-based existentialism.  He echoes Ecclesiastes, constantly turning his eyes to a God he does not fully understand, and in this he reminds me that despite our divides of culture, religion and time, it is the same sun that rises over us all.