How beautiful the white swan, <br />gliding effortlessly, it seems, <br />the sunlight shining on those feathers <br />protecting its skin and body better <br />than do clothes protect a man! <br /> <br />White as if to proclaim God’s beauty mov ing <br />on the waters, like the first day of Creation, <br />it dips its carefully constructed neck so elegantly <br />to find its invisible food… <br /> <br />while invisibly too, under the surface, <br />its legs paddle hard and fast… <br />Who would dare to call the swan <br />a hypocrite because of this! <br /> <br />In India they call the saints <br />who seem to glide so effortlessly <br />through life, glide across our gaze <br />so that for a moment, we would be them… <br />call them Paramahansa, great swan.. <br /> <br />who knows how hard a swan <br />finds its life, moving against a fierce current, <br />lifting its huge body into the air, <br />knowing direction more clearly than any man… <br /> <br />who knows how hard a saint <br />works invisibly all the time, has worked, <br />will work, eternally… for us, <br />watching on the river-bank of life <br />the river, itself yearning for the sea, <br />to lose itself in the vast harbour of the waters…<br /><br />Michael Shepherd<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/in-the-spirit-of-rumi-31-the-swan/
