Zero Circle

ZERO CIRCLE
A poem by Rumi





"Be helpless, dumfounded,
Unable to say yes, or no.
Then a stretcher will come from grace
to gather us up.

We are too dull-eyed to see that beauty.
If we say we can, we're lying.
If we say No, we don't see it,
That No will behead us
And shut tight our window onto spirit.

So let us rather not be sure of anything,
Beside ourselves, and only that, so
Miraculous beings come running to help.
Crazed, lying in a zero circle, mute,
We shall be saying, finally,
With tremendous eloquence, Lead us.
When we have totally surrendered to that beauty,
We shall be a mighty kindness. "

note: Rumi never put any of his poems into writing, but rather he would spin and as he did, his scribe would listen and write down as much as possible. It is from this practice that the Sufi Whirling Dervishes were born.