Lal rang ki saree ka jawaab nahi hai.
Aisa lagta hai ki Rooh ka libaas hai.  

Haseen Badaan  ko chupati bhi hai
Dil kai dhadkanai kau badaati  hai.  

Kamaar ki woh thar tharanaa.  
Kamil naaf ka woh chup chupunaa.  

Woh gehri aur nazuk sai sozen kari
Aap ki khobsuraati ka izafa kar dehti hai.

Lal rang ki saree ka jawaab nahi hai.
Aisa lagta hai ki Rooh ka libaas hai.

For my son Kamil

Waiting for the highest level of initiation
I was looking at small regular things.
I know, it’s doesn’t matter: how things show up.
You have to climb up to illumination…
Then You find yourself Inside.
Then Big Silence comes to you,
Bringing total concentration.
Easy to recognize, because
When You there, no questions
To answer… There is no need.

Meantime I smoke a cigar,
And whisper for the small thing:
Just to begin meditation,
After fulfilling my stomach,
And have a nice coffee…

Leonard Gorski Copyright © 2006

Saint Garden Gnome

An obscure barefoot friar in Italy
Long labored in the Perugian sun,
Heaped rocks upon rocks, and then other rocks,
Up to a wavery roof of broken tiles,
Repairing with his bleeding hands God’s church

Then, better known – it wasn’t his fault – this friar,
With others in love with Lady Poverty,
In hope and penance trudged to far-off Rome
To offer there his modest Rule of life,
Repairing with his mindful words God’s Church

Along the delta of the steaming Nile
He waved away the worried pickets, crossed
Into the camp of the Saracens
Preaching Christ to merciful Al-Kamil,
Offering with a martyr’s heart God’s Faith

Saint Francis is depicted in fine art
In great museums and in modest homes -
And you can find him too, down at Wal-Mart,
Between the plastic frogs and concrete gnomes.