Rumi's Field

"Out beyond right thinking

and wrong thinking there's a field,

will you meet me there?"

Out beyond Israel and Palestine

there's a field, will you meet me there?

Out beyond Islam and Christianity,

Atheism and Religion,

Oneness and Twoness there's a field,

will you meet me there?

Beyond Republican and Democrat,

Beyond Whiteness and Blackness,

Beyond the Binary and Nonbinary

there's a field where wine forgets

it was ever a grape,

a meadow full of bees

with ten thousand fragrances

that all become honey.

I asked Rumi, "Which path leads there?"

He said, 'Follow any sweetness

through the gate that is always open."

I asked, "Where is that gate?"

He pointed, and his finger

ever so gently pressed

the hollow in my sternum,

where the heart breathes.

Photo: a field near my home, view of Mt. Rainier