by Daniel Ladinsky
There's a sentence I love at the end of Ladinsky's explanation of how the poems in his book came to be. The sentence goes:
"Go for it, baby; set the world on fire if you can, kick ass for the Beloved with some great art."
That sentence gives you a good idea of the tone of the book. Ladinsky's translations are earthy - delightfully empty of pretense and affectation. Sometimes they are blunt. But above all they are grace filled.
This is the book I come back to again and again to remember who I am. To remember my connection to the Beloved - to myself - to everyone.
When I get myself into a place where I lose the ability to feel gratitude and lose the knowledge of my connection. When I feel less than, abandoned, unloved, or lost (which happens more often than I feel comfortable revealing) I grab this book.
There's an old Pioneer Girls' saying: "A friend hears the song in my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails." According to that definition, this book is a friend!
The book includes poems and brief biographies of 12 poets, including: Rumi, St. Francis of Assisi, Kabir, Mira, and St. Teresa of Avila.
I've shared this book with many people from a number of different spiritual paths - and they've all reported back that Love Poems From God is a deeply soul-inspiring book.
Ladinsky's translations make of use the masculine pronoun to refer to the Beloved, as the originals probably did. But the grace which the poems exude seems to make it easy to mentally substitute Higher Power, Inner Intention, or whatever works for you.
Here are a few selections from the book ~
a poem from St. Catherine of Siena:
What is it
you want to
change?
Your hair, your face, your body?
Why?
For God is
in love with all those things
and He might weep
when they
are
gone.
a poem from Hafiz:
Know
the true nature of your
Beloved.
In
His
loving
eyes
your every thought, word, and
movement
is always, always
beautiful.
rule,
I looked into His eyes and then knew
what to say to any angel
who might serve as
a sentry to
God:
No creature should be
turned away.
These poems, as the title suggests, read like love poems.
They don't just accept who we are, they celebrate us! They're fantastic reminders for Square-Pegs (who often feel society's disapproval) that we are, indeed, delighted in - wonderful - loveable.