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Pocket Poems: New Printable PDFs
The first place to look for new books of poetry, the Spring Books List of the Academy of American Poets features over 100 new and recently published titles from independent and commercial presses. Highlights include sample poems from Money Shot by Rae Armantrout; POEMS by Elizabeth Bishop; The Captain Asks for a Show of Hands by Nick Flynn; The Back Chamber by Donald Hall; That This by Susan Howe; The Chameleon Couch by Yusef Komunyakaa; Tonight No Poetry Will Serve by Adrienne Rich; Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith; The Iovis Trilogy by Anne Waldman; Fall Higher by Dean Young; Dear Darkness by Kevin Young; and more.
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[Poetry Chaikhana] Omar Khayyam - [11] Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough
Here's your Daily Poem from the Poetry Chaikhana --
 | [11] Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough By Omar Khayyam English version by Edward FitzGerald
Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,
 / Photo by kochtopf / |
| ============ Thought for the Day: You can only perceive ============ | Here's your Daily Music selection --  Emily van Evera Vision: The Music of Hildegard von Bingen |
Hi Omss -
Omar Khayyam was best known in his time as a mathematician and astronomer. His theorems are still studied by mathematicians today. His poetry really only became widely read when Edward FitzGerald collected several quatrains (rubaiyat) attributed to Khayyam and translated them into English as the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.
The common view in the West of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is that it is a collection of sensual love poems. Although some scholars debate this question, many people assert that Omar Khayyam was a Sufi, as well as a poet and mathematician, and that his Rubaiyat can only be truly understood using the language of mystical metaphor.
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This is the classic verse that most people think of first from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. That alternate translation still hovers in the air: "A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and Thou..."
These lines can be read on so many different levels. At first glance, Khayyam seems to be giving us a picture of a garden dalliance -- bread, wine, love poetry, and an enticing, unnamed "Thou." A lovers' tryst in the wilderness.
But, of course, in the Sufi tradition, these seemingly earthy images are transformed into the most sublime of meanings.
Khayyam's mysterious beloved is God. This is the sacred meeting of soul with the Eternal.
And what about the bread and wine, the book and the wilderness?
Bread is, in many cultures, the fundamental food, the symbol of all food. And food is communion. Think of it this way: The food we eat is the most tangible exchange we make with our environment. Our food is what most immediately connects us with the reality we inhabit. When you take in food, you temporarily negate the illusion of separation between your body and the rest of existence. Food is a breach of the boundary where we normally perceive separation to begin.
So it is really true, food is communion. It is an affirmation of interconnection and unity with our environment. What we take in becomes, in a very visceral way, a part of us. And we increasingly become composed of it. Remember the common saying, You are what you eat.
And the wine is the blissful drink of selflessness and divine ecstasy. The book of verse could be a reference to the Quran or, more broadly, any sacred writings -- or perhaps the profound recognition of how all of creation is written with subtle, poetic meaning.
And the wilderness? Our meeting place? Well, that is the heart, the space of awareness at one's core. It is "wild" because it is undefined by concepts and mental labels. The wilderness of the heart is expansive, with reaching tendrils that climb over stone walls until everything is lost in its rich verdure.
Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough...
Let's join with Khayyam and sing of our secret love affair with the Divine. Eating our fill of the bread of union, drinking the wine of bliss, we come into the presence the Beloved.
Time for a spring picnic perhaps!
Ivan
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Ivan M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright © 2002 - 2011 by Ivan M. Granger.
All other material is copyrighted by the respective authors, translators and/or publishers.
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