Peter Lucas Hulen

Rumi

Rumi

THE WORM'S WAKING

This is how a human being can change:
there's a worm addicted to eating
grape leaves.
                         Suddenly he wakes up,
call it grace, whatever, something
wakes him, and he's no longer
a worm.
                He's the entire vineyard,
and the orchard too, the fruit, the trunks,
a growing wisdom and joy
that doesn't need
to devour.


Coleman Barks, Tr., The Essential Rumi (San Fransico: Harper Collins, 1995)