| On Rumi | p. xi |
| A Note on the Organization of This Book | p. xv |
| The Tavern: Whoever Brought Me Here Will Have to Take Me Home | |
| On The Tavern | p. 1 |
| Who Says Words with My Mouth? | p. 2 |
| We have a huge barrel of wine | p. 2 |
| A Community of the Spirit | p. 3 |
| There's a strange frenzy in my head | p. 4 |
| Drunks fear the police | p. 4 |
| A Children's Game | p. 4 |
| Gone, inner and outer | p. 5 |
| The wine we really drink | p. 6 |
| The Many Wines | p. 6 |
| Special Plates | p. 7 |
| Burnt Kabob | p. 7 |
| The New Rule | p. 8 |
| This that is tormented | p. 8 |
| Bewilderment: I Have Five Things to Say | |
| On Bewilderment | p. 9 |
| I Have Five Things to Say | p. 9 |
| Acts of Helplessness | p. 11 |
| Saladin's Begging Bowl | p. 12 |
| Late, by myself | p. 12 |
| Does sunset sometimes look | p. 13 |
| Be Melting Snow | p. 13 |
| The Fragile Vial | p. 14 |
| Where Are We? | p. 15 |
| The Friend comes into my body | p. 16 |
| There is a light seed grain | p. 16 |
| Do you think I know | p. 16 |
| Emptiness and Silence: The Night Air | |
| On Silence | p. 17 |
| The Reed Flute's Song | p. 17 |
| A Thirsty Fish | p. 19 |
| Enough Words? | p. 20 |
| This World Which Is Made of Our Love for Emptiness | p. 21 |
| Quietness | p. 22 |
| Sanai | p. 22 |
| A Just-Finishing Candle | p. 23 |
| Craftsmanship and Emptiness | p. 24 |
| Emptiness | p. 26 |
| When you are with everyone but me | p. 28 |
| No Flag | p. 28 |
| The Food Sack | p. 29 |
| The Night Air | p. 30 |
| Only Breath | p. 32 |
| There is a way between voice | p. 32 |
| Spring Giddiness: Stand in the Wake of This Chattering and Grow Airy | |
| On Spring Giddiness | p. 33 |
| Spring | p. 33 |
| Where Everything Is Music | p. 34 |
| A Great Wagon | p. 35 |
| Today, like every other day | p. 36 |
| Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing | p. 36 |
| The breeze at dawn | p. 36 |
| I would love to kiss you | p. 37 |
| Daylight, full of small dancing particles | p. 37 |
| They try to say what you are | p. 37 |
| Come to the orchard in Spring | p. 37 |
| Spring Is Christ | p. 37 |
| Shreds of Steam | p. 38 |
| The Steambath | p. 39 |
| The Ground Cries Out | p. 39 |
| Unfold Your Own Myth | p. 40 |
| Not a Day on Any Calendar | p. 41 |
| Flutes for Dancing | p. 42 |
| The Shape of My Thongue | p. 42 |
| The Grasses | p. 43 |
| The Sheikh Who Played with Children | p. 44 |
| Let the lover be disgraceful | p. 46 |
| All day and night, music | p. 46 |
| Feeling Separation: Don't Come Near Me | |
| On Separation | p. 47 |
| Sometimes I Forget Completely | p. 47 |
| A Man and a Woman Arguing | p. 47 |
| A night full of talking that hurts | p. 50 |
| An Empty Garlic | p. 50 |
| The Diver's Clothes Lying Empty | p. 51 |
| Red Shirt | p. 51 |
| My Worst Habit | p. 52 |
| Don't let your throat tighten | p. 52 |
| Dissolver of Sugar | p. 53 |
| Pale sunlight | p. 53 |
| Controlling the Desire-Body: How Did You Kill Your Rooster, Husam? | |
| On The Desire-Body | p. 54 |
| Sexual Urgency, What a Woman's Laughter Can Do, and the Nature of True Virility | p. 55 |
| Tattooing in Qazwin | p. 61 |
| The Center of the Fire | p. 63 |
| Someone who goes with half a loaf | p. 64 |
| The mystery does not get clearer | p. 64 |
| Muhammad and the Huge Eater | p. 64 |
| Fasting | p. 69 |
| Bismillah | p. 70 |
| Wean Yourself | p. 70 |
| After the Meditation | p. 71 |
| The Dog in the Doorway | p. 73 |
| The light you give off | p. 74 |
| Tending Two Shops | p. 74 |
| Think that you're gliding out | p. 75 |
| Sohbet: Meetings on the Riverbank | |
| On Sohbet | p. 76 |
| Talking in the Night | p. 77 |
| Talking Through the Door | p. 78 |
| A Mouse and a Frog | p. 79 |
| The Long String | p. 80 |
| The Force of Friendship | p. 84 |
| The Vigil | p. 85 |
| Two Friends | p. 87 |
| The Servant Who Loved His Prayers | p. 89 |
| Imra'u 'l-Qays | p. 90 |
| All Rivers at Once | p. 92 |
| The Blocked Road | p. 93 |
| A Babbling Child | p. 93 |
| Who sees inside from outside? | p. 94 |
| Constant Conversation | p. 94 |
| Bonfire at Midnight | p. 95 |
| In Between Stories | p. 95 |
| The Question | p. 97 |
| The Music | p. 98 |
| I saw you last night in the gathering | p. 98 |
| The Tent | p. 98 |
| Friend, our closeness is this | p. 99 |
| Listen to presences | p. 99 |
| Being a Lover: The Sunrise Ruby | |
| On Being A Lover | p. 100 |
| The Sunrise Ruby | p. 100 |
| Water from Your Spring | p. 101 |
| You Sweep the Floor | p. 102 |
| Each Note | p. 102 |
| Granite and Wineglass | p. 103 |
| Buoyancy | p. 104 |
| Music Master | p. 105 |
| When I am with you | p. 106 |
| The minute I heard my first love story | p. 106 |
| We are the mirror as well as the face | p. 106 |
| I want to hold you close | p. 107 |
| Someone Digging in the Ground | p. 107 |
| The Phrasing Must Change | p. 108 |
| The Guest House | p. 109 |
| The Pickaxe: Getting to the Treasure Beneath the Foundation | |
| On The Pickaxe | p. 110 |
| Who Makes These Changes? | p. 110 |
| Why Wine Is Forbidden | p. 111 |
| On Resurrection Day | p. 111 |
| The Dream That Must Be Interpreted | p. 112 |
| The Pickaxe | p. 113 |
| Zikr | p. 114 |
| The Core of Masculinity | p. 115 |
| I honor those who try | p. 116 |
| Dervish at the Door | p. 116 |
| Art as Flirtation with Surrender: Wanting New Silk Harp Strings | |
| On Flirtation | p. 118 |
| Omar and the Old Poet | p. 118 |
| An Egypt That Doesn't Exist | p. 120 |
| Chinese Art and Greek Art | p. 121 |
| In your light I learn | p. 122 |
| Drumsound rises on the air | p. 122 |
| Are you jealous of the ocean's generosity? | p. 123 |
| Union: Gnats Inside the Wind | |
| On Union | p. 124 |
| Gnats Inside the Wind | p. 124 |
| Meadowsounds | p. 125 |
| Ayaz and the King's Pearl | p. 126 |
| Put This Design in Your Carpet | p. 128 |
| Hallaj | p. 129 |
| We Three | p. 130 |
| I am filled with you | p. 131 |
| The Sheikh: I Have Such a Teacher | |
| On The Sheikh | p. 132 |
| Chickpea to Cook | p. 132 |
| I Have Such a Teacher | p. 133 |
| Sublime Generosity | p. 134 |
| Like This | p. 135 |
| A Bowl | p. 137 |
| Wax | p. 138 |
| No Room for Form | p. 138 |
| Childhood Friends | p. 139 |
| The Mouse and the Camel | p. 142 |
| These gifts from the Friend | p. 144 |
| The Lame Goat | p. 144 |
| Recognizing Elegance: Your Reasonable Father | |
| On Elegance | p. 145 |
| Father Reason | p. 145 |
| A craftsman pulled a reed | p. 146 |
| Humble living does not diminish | p. 146 |
| New Moon, Hilal | p. 147 |
| Body Intelligence | p. 151 |
| The Seed Market | p. 153 |
| The Howling Necessity: Cry Out in Your Weakness | |
| On Howling | p. 155 |
| Love Dogs | p. 155 |
| Cry Out in Your Weakness | p. 156 |
| The Debtor Sheikh | p. 157 |
| You that come to birth | p. 160 |
| Teaching Stories: How the Unseen World Works | |
| On The Unseen | p. 161 |
| Nasuh | p. 161 |
| Moses and the Shepherd | p. 165 |
| Joy at Sudden Disappointment | p. 168 |
| If the beloved is everywhere | p. 171 |
| Story Water | p. 171 |
| Rough Metaphors: More Teaching Stories | |
| On Roughness | p. 173 |
| Rough Metaphors | p. 173 |
| Birdwings | p. 174 |
| I Come Before Dawn | p. 175 |
| Checkmate | p. 175 |
| An Awkward Comparison | p. 177 |
| Two Kinds of Intelligence | p. 178 |
| Two Ways of Running | p. 178 |
| The Importance of Gourdcrafting | p. 181 |
| Breadmaking | p. 183 |
| Solomon Poems: The Far Mosque | |
| On Solomon | p. 186 |
| Sheba's Gifts to Solomon | p. 186 |
| Solomon to Sheba | p. 188 |
| Sheba's Hesitation | p. 188 |
| Sheba's Throne | p. 189 |
| Solomon's Crooked Crown | p. 190 |
| The Far Mosque | p. 191 |
| A bird delegation came to Solomon | p. 192 |
| The Three Fish: Gamble Everything for Love | |
| On Gambling | p. 193 |
| If you want what visible reality | p. 193 |
| Gamble everything | p. 193 |
| In a boat down a fast-running creek | p. 194 |
| The Three Fish | p. 194 |
| Send the Chaperones Away | p. 198 |
| When I remember your love | p. 199 |
| All our lives we've looked | p. 199 |
| The Gift of Water | p. 199 |
| Jesus Poems: The Population of the World | |
| On Jesus | p. 201 |
| I called through your door | p. 201 |
| Jesus on the Lean Donkey | p. 202 |
| What Jesus Runs Away From | p. 204 |
| Christ is the population | p. 204 |
| There's Nothing Ahead | p. 205 |
| In Baghdad, Dreaming of Cairo: More Teaching Stories | |
| On Baghdad | p. 206 |
| In Baghdad, Dreaming of Cairo: In Cairo, Dreaming of Baghdad | p. 206 |
| Dying, Laughing | p. 212 |
| Human Honesty | p. 213 |
| Dalqak's Message | p. 214 |
| The Cat and the Meat | p. 216 |
| Sheikh Kharraqani and His Wretched Wife | p. 217 |
| The Snake-Catcher and the Frozen Snake | p. 220 |
| Polishing the Mirror | p. 222 |
| Ali in Battle | p. 223 |
| Beginning and End: The Stories That Frame the Mathnawi | |
| On The Frame | p. 225 |
| The King and the Handmaiden and the Doctor | p. 225 |
| The Three Brothers and the Chinese Princess | p. 233 |
| Green Ears Everywhere: Children Running Through | |
| On Children Running Through | p. 238 |
| I used to be shy | p. 238 |
| Green Ears | p. 239 |
| Birdsong brings relief | p. 243 |
| The way of love is not | p. 243 |
| Let your throat-song | p. 244 |
| I have phrases and whole pages | p. 244 |
| You've so distracted me | p. 244 |
| I'm Not Saying This Right | p. 244 |
| The Least Figure | p. 245 |
| I reach for a piece of wood | p. 245 |
| Being Woven: Communal Practice | |
| On Being Woven | p. 246 |
| Of Being Woven | p. 246 |
| The Waterwheel | p. 247 |
| The Granary Floor | p. 248 |
| A Song About a Donkey | p. 250 |
| Elephant in the Dark | p. 252 |
| Wished-For Song: Secret Practices | |
| On Secrecy | p. 253 |
| A Wished-For Song | p. 253 |
| A Basket of Fresh Bread | p. 254 |
| When We Pray Alone | p. 256 |
| One Who Wraps Himself | p. 257 |
| Deliberation | p. 258 |
| The Private Banquet | p. 259 |
| We are the night ocean | p. 260 |
| Which is worth more, a crowd | p. 260 |
| Majesty: This We Have Now | |
| On Majesty | p. 261 |
| This We Have Now | p. 261 |
| The Visions of Daquqi | p. 262 |
| The Worm's Waking | p. 265 |
| The Freshness | p. 266 |
| Judge a Moth by the Beauty of Its Candle | p. 266 |
| The morning wind spreads | p. 267 |
| Slave, be aware | p. 267 |
| Evolutionary Intelligence: Say I Am You | |
| On Evolving | p. 268 |
| A Dove in the Eaves | p. 268 |
| We have this way of talking | p. 270 |
| This piece of food | p. 270 |
| In the slaughterhouse of love | p. 270 |
| The Witness, the Darling | p. 270 |
| In the Arc of Your Mallet | p. 271 |
| Unmarked Boxes | p. 272 |
| The Milk of Millennia | p. 273 |
| The You Pronoun | p. 273 |
| Birdsong from Inside the Egg | p. 274 |
| Say I Am You | p. 275 |
| The Turn: Dance in Your Blood | |
| On The Turn | p. 277 |
| Inside water, a waterwheel | p. 278 |
| You have said what you are | p. 278 |
| A secret turning in us | p. 278 |
| This moment this love comes to rest | p. 278 |
| Keep walking, though there's no place | p. 278 |
| Walk to the well | p. 279 |
| I circle your nest | p. 279 |
| No better love than love | p. 279 |
| Some nights stay up | p. 279 |
| I am so small | p. 279 |
| When you feel your lips | p. 280 |
| The sun is love | p. 280 |
| Something opens our wings | p. 280 |
| Held like this | p. 280 |
| I stand up, and this one of me | p. 280 |
| I have lived on the lip | p. 281 |
| Real value comes with madness | p. 281 |
| Dance, when you're broken open | p. 281 |
| Notes | p. 283 |
| A Note on These Translations and a Few Recipes | p. 290 |
| References | p. 297 |
| Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved. |
