Enriching Reads: Installment #2
Robert Frost once said, “Poetry is when an emotion found its thought and the thought has found words.” A couple years ago, I was on a weekend trip in the snowy woods, and I found myself in one of the cutest little bookstores ever. Being an avid writer and reader, I always get excited when I discover new, unique shops that support the written word, especially in its printed form. As I skimmed the titles on the shelves, this yellow book, tucked away on the very bottom shelf, struck me. And that is how I happened upon “The Gift,” which I feel truly lives up to its title, and I hope through me sharing this with you, you feel as though a little piece of magic has been bestowed upon you as well.
I regard Hafiz’s “The Gift” as one of the most influential collections of writing that I have ever read. His words provoke such profound thoughts and feelings, and when I first read his poems, I was overwhelmed with this sense of connection that I had never fully experienced before. It amazed me that someone could write about concepts so far ahead of my time, yet touch me with them in a way that made me feel as if they were directly written for me to absorb. Hafiz’s poems helped me to put in perspective that we are all loved and never lonely, thanks to the powerful universe that we belong to.
Excerpt from The Gift
In the first verse of his poem “Looking for Good Fish,” Hafiz writes:
Why complain about life
If you are looking for good fish
And have followed some idiot
Into the middle of the copper market?
I interpreted this segment, which is representative of the poem as a whole, to mean that if we focus on the negative or continue to pursue paths that don’t proactively help your case, you really don’t have the authority to complain. His poem resolves in teaching us that we shouldn’t look beyond ourselves for fulfillment, love, and other emotional contentment, since we all have the universe flowing within us and have all been intentionally placed within this world that was created out of love.
Hafiz, who was a Sufi master, has such an amazing way of highlighting the common threads throughout all of humanity and illuminating our oneness with the world. I think another beautiful aspect is that because it is poetry, it can be interpreted in multiple ways, further supporting the idea that we all experience similar feelings, just in different situations. Even if you just want to indulge in a few of Hafiz’s poems, I highly recommend seeking out his words. I hope this post and suggestion brings you some enlightenment! Feel free to comment below your favorite poem, thoughts that you experienced through them, or other reading suggestions!