Startled By Love

Reflection on Hafiz

Lately, I’ve been revisiting some of my favorite poems by the sufi poet, Hafiz. If you are not familiar with Hafiz, Hāfiz was a Persian mystical poet who lived between 1325 –1389. His poems are often short and address what keeps us from living more fully and deeply. He delights in the nuances of the world with humor and loving appreciation and devotion. Here is a link to a Hafiz classic “The Gift”

This week I decided i would read a poem of Hafiz each morning and use it as a writing prompt - read the poem, meditate on its meaning and then write my own short poem, almost in conversation more than commentary.

I wrote this poem on a flight from San Francisco to Chicago in response to his poem “Startled By God”

Photo by Thibault Mokuenko on Unsplash