Hafiz

The
Great religions are the
Ships,

Poets the life
Boats.

Every sane person I know has jumped
Overboard.

That is good for business
Isn't it

Hafiz?

There's something very seductive about really good Sufi poetry. It's the combination of passion, humour, precision, philosophy and wit - the sense of something that is heartfelt and deeply meaningful, but that it is also laughing and playful. "Teach us to care and not to care" Eliot writes - but it is the sufis who have really mastered that art.

In one of his most beautiful poems, Hafiz writes: "I vote for you to be God". That one line conjurs up so many emotions. On the one hand, it surprises you and makes you laugh. On the other, it makes you think about the nature of God's authority and what it would mean to choose our own Gods. At the same time it is a deeply moving line, a beautiful idea for a love poem.

It is this ability to walk the tightrope between the human and the divine that makes Hafiz special to me. His unique voice is the embodiment of an attitude I have always aspired to; a rich yet easy wisdom that he shares with the other great Sufi / Bhakti poets (witness Kabir). His lines are often taut with meaning, but they are also heartbreakingly simple and display a clarity of thought that rivals the best work of the great Chinese poets (Li Po, Tu Fu).

Good

Poetry

Makes the universe admit a

Secret:

"I am

Really just a tambourine,

Grab hold,

Play me

Against your warm

Thigh."