Short Poems

BATTERIES OUT OF AMMUNITION

If any mourn us in the workshop, say
We died because the shift kept holiday.

Who ever suffered as I from separation?
Ah I will punish separation by separation.
Hafiz

A stately bride is the shining world,
Yet none can woo that maid to wife.
Hafiz

Lo! where from Heaven's high roof
Misfortune staggers down;
We, just from harm to stand aloof,
Will to the wineshop run.
Hafiz

The roguish wind and I
Are truly an amorous pair;
Me burns the sparkle of thine eye,
He fans thy scented hair.
Hafiz

In thy holiday of life,
Use occasion, work & climb,
The sepulchre has overmuch
Unprofitable time.
Hafiz

O Hafiz, give me thought
In fiery figures cast;
For all beside is naught, —
All else is din & blast.
Hafiz

O follow the sonnet's flight
Thou seest a fleet career
A child begot in a night
That travels a thousand year
Hafiz

Ruler after word & thought
Which no eye yet saw
Which no ear yet heard
Remain, until thy young destiny
From the old greybeard of the sky
His blue coat takes.
Hafiz

Drink, hear my counsel, my son, that the world fret thee not.
Tho' the heart bleed, let thy lips laugh, like the wine cup:
Is thy soul hurt, yet dance with the viol-strings:
Thou learnest no secret, until thou knowest friendship,
Since to the unsound no heavenly knowledge comes in.
Hafiz