Don't Go Back to Sleep

Today is the birthday of Sufi poet and mystic Jelaluddin Rumi (September 30, 1207 – December 17, 1273).

To mark the occasion I share the following poem by Rumi as interpreted by Coleman Barks.

The breeze at dawn
has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep.
You must ask for what
you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth
across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.

– Rumi

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• The Sufi Way
• Sufism: A Call to Awaken
• Sufism: Way of Love, Tradition of Enlightenment, and Antidote to Fanaticism
• Doris Lessing on the Sufi Way
• Rumi and Shams: A Love of Another Kind
• Ramesh Bjonnes on Rumi and Shams as Gay Lovers
• In the Dance of Light, Eyes of Fiery Passion
• Prayer of the Week – June 2, 2014
• The Guesthouse
• "Joined at the Heart": Robert Thompson on Christianity and Sufism

Related Off-site Links:
Rumi: Poet and Sufi Mystic Inspired by Same-Sex Love – Kittredge Cherry (Jesus in Live Blog, September 30, 2015).
Rumi: Another Male's Love Inspired Persia's Mystic Muse – Warren D. Adkins (Gay Today, January 5, 1998).

Image: "Ali" by JR Christiansen.