by Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore
A black horse blends into the night
just as a white horse blends
into snow
A yellow bird blends into flown valleys of
mustard blooms in sharp
daylight
just as a rainbow barely seen shyly
blends all its
peacock display shades back into blue sky then
sometimes peeps out again
across the Grand Canyon or the Void
Certain things in our swiveling sight
stand out while
other things as broadly displayed
stay back from visual perception
Doesn’t the witness to what God
does in the world show God?
Lady Godiva goes to the opera and
loses her pearls but it
turns out she never had them on
A blur of Civil War cavalry leaps over a
fence in the woods and is
gone but gunfire pops and
some of them now lie
scattered on the ground
If we put our hands in
front of our eyes in the
dark we won’t see them
but in daylight they’re clearly visible
Yet they’re always (while we’re still alive)
these miraculous appendages attached to
our bodies that do our bidding in often the most
painstakingly delicate ways
such as cutting a diamond rock into
carats through just an old-fashioned
magnifying glass in the darkest area of a
shop in Austria
or water going down a causeway whose
full flow rushes on but we
only see a tiny amount of all its
rippling sparkles
The Presence of the Almighty as Almighty
is as palpable as the
Presence of the Subtle as Subtlety
here there and everywhere
on the tips of the ends of whips
as well as the froth on a
team of black and white horses
galloping for days through night and
day to escape the Bolsheviks
and those gorgeous steeds who drew us to
safety now in their stalls
uniquely themselves and
quietly patient after their ordeal
browsing their glistening nostrils
among fresh hay contented
no one in sight for miles who could
harm them
no one near who can
show us God
yet He’s everywhere
direct
fish in its water
light in its light
dark in its darkness
gnat in flight
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ABOUT THE POET ~
Born in 1940 in Oakland, California, Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore had his first book of poems, Dawn Visions, published by Lawrence Ferlinghetti of City Lights Books, San Francisco, in 1964, and the second in 1972, Burnt Heart/Ode to the War Dead. He created and directed The Floating Lotus Magic Opera Company in Berkeley, California in the late 60s, and presented two major productions, The Walls Are Running Blood, and Bliss Apocalypse. He became a Sufi Muslim in 1970, performed the Hajj in 1972, and lived and traveled throughout Morocco, Spain, Algeria and Nigeria, landing in California and publishing The Desert is the Only Way Out, and Chronicles of Akhira in the early 80s (Zilzal Press). Residing in Philadelphia since 1990, in 1996 he published The Ramadan Sonnets (Jusoor/City Lights), and in 2002, The Blind Beekeeper (Jusoor/Syracuse University Press). He has been the major editor for a number of works, including The Burdah of Shaykh Busiri, translated by Hamza Yusuf, and the poetry of Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish, translated by Munir Akash. He is also widely published on the worldwide web: The American Muslim, DeenPort, and his own website and poetry blog, among others: www.danielmoorepoetry.com, www.ecstaticxchange.wordpress.com. He has been poetry editor for Seasons Journal, Islamica Magazine, a 2010 translation by Munir Akash of State of Siege, by Mahmoud Darwish (Syracuse University Press), and The Prayer of the Oppressed, by Imam Muhammad Nasir al-Dar’i, translated by Hamza Yusuf. In 2011 he was a winner of the Nazim Hikmet Prize for Poetry. The Ecstatic Exchange Series is bringing out the extensive body of his works of poetry, of which there are thirty-two books as of August, 2011.
Last updated July 05, 2015