One Song

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.

Rumi

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Coleman Barks reading “One Song” on

What Was Said to the Rose 2004

Coleman Barks with Barry & Shelly Phillips

CD available from colemanbarks.com