Sabbath Poem (Mansour)

WHO ARE WE?
~ by Ali Mansour

who am I?
and who are you?
I’m drops of rain in the air!
I can not count nor calculate either of you
you see through it
and when collected
I become the river going through rooks and sand
sometimes the raging one  I come with destructions
but most of the time I’m calmer and gentler
when you ride me I take you places
you never dreamt about
I will show you the wonderland
I’m the life table for you
and when you’re hot and dirty
I clean and cool you
say I you
I say stop  — to all those drops and dust
but they keep moving  — with all its particles
forming that great ocean with all its creations
is that where I come from?
no wonder that they call me the ocean
I’m the falcon flying over you
catching the fish swimming in you
So say I’m you
I’m all the order of being
the tree on the embankment
the fish and the mammal
I’m the reef  — silent  — thoughts  — inelegant
I’m the screaming wind creating the clouds
the hurricane coming to shore
to be drops of rain again
to become a life after death —
or death after life! —
what it is? And what it isn’t?
what is right and what is wrong
Say I am
I say  —  I — you
YA HU  YA HU   YA HU

Ali Mansour is a Sufi Dervish who regularly attends Faith House Manhattan and sometimes reads us poems.  Thank you, Ali, for sending this text for us to publish!

Comments

[James K. Sample]

Mr. Mansour,

Thanks again, for the posting of "WHO ARE WE" poem. My son Paul K. Sample (8 yrs) will be reciting your piece February 12, 2010 at the Pocatello Community Charter School in Pocatello, Idaho.

james (dad)