Sufi Lyrics in the Egyptian Desert - Martin Bidney - Bog

During the 30 days (2011) I spent teaching English in the Egyptian desert settlement of Sekem, a sustainable eco-friendly farming community, I was on a Sufi pilgrimage of inner and outer discovery, embodied in the 90 poems I offer here. In my Introduction you'll hear additional lyrics I wrote about the mystical teachers in Islamic tradition who galvanized my efforts in exploring and have continued to guide me in the 15 years of my "retoolment." The form of my daily triple entry in the spiritual diary at Sekem evolved from the initial inspiration of Edward FitzGerald's rendering of quatrains by Sufi poet Omar Khayyam. Here's the best known of these: "A Book of Verses underneath the Bough, / A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread - and Thou / Beside me singing in the Wilderness - / Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!" By following my pilgrim journey, you'll see how I got from there to entry #90: "A vast and mighty wind passed through / My hair and eyes and mind: I knew / It was a moment only, though / Undimmed the flare; unmuted blew / The summons. You, that made me grow / And want me to the world to show / A tone, a word - what shiver shook / The body-soul, and loved it so! / O blood-tone of our ocean-brook, / And pounding heart, and lightning look, / If at this moment I should die, / There's none will say that I mistook / What might all sighing justify - / The life lines that before you lie. / Inhale again the heaven-blue: - / Blest every breath, west-heading cry."