Mystical poetry communicates the poet’s emotions and spiritual insights arising from an experience the poet sensed to be spiritual contact and relationship with God. It often deals with feelings of being deeply loved by an adoring parent. This is a special kind of love which lacks any selfish motive. It cares for the loved one completely. This variety of love, when it is felt, is an extraordinary experience and mystical poetry attempts to communicate that. For the mystical poet, the experience of loving deity and being loved by deity is what makes life special and real, in a higher dimension.
Each time I read mystical poetry, I experience fresh feelings of discovery of what is truly real, a few whispers of “Yes” within my heart and, tender emotions of love given and received.
Mystical poetry leaps at feelings often without engaging in logical, rational or factual steps. It is after all, dealing with spiritual experience, not material events. Its reality is found by way of creative imagination. It is not fantasy or fiction. It is real in spirit but it talks about matters that are not material and not necessarily logical. Mystical poets often refer to God as their beloved or as a lover and some carry this analogy into mildly erotic comparisons.
We cannot understand mystical poetry as we would prose. Its special value is in communicating emotions of deity contact and encouraging the reader to come along into the experience and the emotions.
The Sufi tradition in Islam has produced several wonderful mystical poets and there have been several Christian mystical poets and some from India as well. I especially enjoy two books of mystical poetry collected and translated by Daniel Ladinsky. The book titles are “The Gift “ and “Love Poems from God.” I am including some poems from Ladinsky’s books in this post below.
Four previously unpublished poems by a contemporary mystical poet, Nickla Heudier, are included below. The four poems are all included in the post titled “Contemporary Mystical Poetry”. That post is in the category “Spirituality in Daily Life”. It is easily accessed from the Alphabetical Index of posts on our home page.
Poems from Daniel Ladinsky’s “Love Poems from God”
Love Does That
by Meister Eckhart: Germany, Circa 1290 CE
All day long a little burro labors, sometimes
with heavy loads on her back and sometimes just with worries
about things that bother only
burros.
And worries, as we know, can be more exhausting
than physical labor.
Once in a while a kind monk comes
to her stable and brings
a pear, but more
than that,
he looks into the burro’s eyes and touches her ears
and for a few seconds the burro is free
and even seems to laugh,
because love does that.
Love frees.
When I Returned from Rome
By St. Francis of Assisi: Italy, Circa 1210 CE
A bird took flight.
And a flower in a field
whistled at me
as I passed.
I drank
from a stream of clear water.
And at night the sky untied her hair and I fell asleep
clutching a tress
of God’s.
When I returned from Rome, all said
“Tell us the great news,”
and with great excitement I did: “A flower in a field whistled,
and at night the sky untied her hair and
I fell asleep clutching a
sacred tress…”
He Asked For Charity
By St Francis of Assisi: Italy, Circa 1210 CE
God came to my house and asked for charity.
And I fell on my knees and
cried, “Beloved,
what may I
give?”
“Just love,” He said.
“Just love.”
A Lover Who Wants His Lovers Near
By Rabia of Bassra: Iraq, Circa 750 CE
He is
sweet that way,
trying to coax the world to dance.
Look how the wind holds the trees in its hands
helping them to
sway.
Look how the sky takes the fields and the oceans
and our bodies in its arms, and moves
all beings toward
His lips.
God must get hungry for us; after all, He is also
a lover who wants His lovers near.
Beauty
is my teacher
Helping me to know He
cares for me.
Poems from Daniel Ladinsky’s “ The Gift ”
If God Invited You To A Party
By Hafiz: Persia, Circa 1350 CE
If God
Invited you to a party and
said,
“Everyone in the ballroom tonight will
be my special
guest.”
How would you then treat them when you arrived?
Indeed, indeed!
And Hafiz knows that there is no one in
this world who is not standing upon
God’s jeweled dance
floor.
The Stairway Of Existence
By Hafiz: Iran, Circa 1350 CE
We
Are not
In pursuit of formalities
Or fake religious
Laws,
For through the stairway of existence
We have come to God’s
Door.
We are
People who need to love, because
Love is the soul’s life,
Love is simply creation’s greatest joy.
Through
The stairway of existence,
O, through the stairway of existence, Hafiz
Have
You now come
Have we all now come to
The Beloved’s
Door.
Contemporary Mystical Poetry by Nickla Heudier
Your Endless Desire
By Nickla Heudier: Texas, Circa 2020 CE
in innocence
i love You,
no need,
no want,
no desire,
only You,
here,
right now,
in this quiet space, to share
the same peace with You
is all i ask,
all i need.
Your fullness in me
is the beginning of a life
I had not imagined.
Perfecting me is
Your endless desire
giving me
a freedom to explore,
to shift, to change,
to finally be me,
so free, so loved!
The woman I knew is gone.
She is transmuted, elevated
into something divine.
Mother God’s Closeness
By Nickla Heudier: Texas, Circa 2020 CE
Our first meeting shook the foundations
of my whole life.
In a group filled with lovers of Mother God,
we meditated. At a deep point within me,
I went somewhere else….
I stood in a large theater with heavy
red velvet curtains. I thought, “What am
I readying myself for?”
“Is it about a past life as a boy and my
death in Leningrad during the German
Invasion of 1942? No.”
I started walking down the long isle, and then
it came to me. It was about my tender heart
as a child growing up in silent pain.
The curtains parted and there SHE was,
a deep-red etheric heart floating in mid-air.
It was Her. It was Mother Divine!
Inside me I said, “O Mother, thank-you!”
I gave Her all my pain, and She embraced me
a long while. It was a divine experience
of loving beyond all human loving!
From that day on,
a part of HER lives in me.
Struggling Towards God
By Nickla Heudier: Texas, Circa 2020 CE
How my heart adores You,
Mother-Father God
Such strength and tenderness
reside in You.
I have just been introduced to
to You both who are One.
YOU come to embrace me,
your newest adherent.
I, a peon, have been given
gift after gift of love.
Words are fragile things
in my rough hands.
May I always be true
to You, Mother-Father.
May You always
be proud of me,
living a life struggling
towards perfection.
Vision and Purpose
By Nickla Heudier: Texas, Circa 2020 CE
I heard You, so clearly
that first night when You woke me up.
You said to me, “I am here child,
I have loved you forever.
Rise and walk with me.”
From that night forward,
I have lived like never before
with clarity of vision and purpose,
Your words pouring from me.
How could I know
I would write such words?
It felt like water coming forth
from a desert spring.
Memories of lifetimes lived and
rose in me. All glory goes to You,
my Beloved Mother-Father God.
I shook away the dreamlife
I was living. Now I am walking
with You every day, embraced by
Your eternal sunshine.
