One Song

          by Rumi

          translated by Coleman Barks

What is praised is one, so the praise is one too,

many jugs being poured


into a huge basin.  All religions, all this singing,

one song.


The differences are just illusion and vanity. Sunlight

looks slightly different


on this wall than it does on that wall and a lot different

on this other one, but


it is still one light.  We have borrowed these clothes, these

time-and-space personalities,


from a light, and when we praise, we pour them back in.

Coleman Barks reading “One Song” on

What Was Said to the Rose, 2004

Coleman Barks with Barry & Shelly Phillips

CD available from colemanbarks.com

David LaMotte

david@journeysend.me

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