O pilgrim on the path of life, <br />you have travelled far; <br />now you have come to rest <br />and make yourself a home; <br />and plant a garden there. <br /> <br />You measured out the plot of land, <br />designed it with your love, <br />laid precious stones along its paths, <br />planted trees for shade, <br />beneath them, marbled seats; and <br />roses red as heart’s red blood, or <br />white as purity; scented as all beauty veiled; <br />among the roses, jasmine, iris, lily, honeysuckle; <br />and in the evening, night’s pale flowers that yield <br />all the scented charms of cooling dusk; <br />and in the centre, a fountain plashing, <br />ever different, ever the same, <br />to be the token of your resting soul.. <br /> <br />now you build a wall around it, <br />stone by stone. Two things <br />I ask of you, O faithful one: <br /> <br />make an arched gate within the wall <br />that you may not make your neighbour envious; <br />where you may invite him to join you, <br />that neighbour who is yourself disguised.. <br /> <br />and as you lay each stone <br />to guard your peace from fox and wolf, <br />remember - that a paradise with walls <br />is but a parable, a paradigm, <br />for that true paradise which knows no walls; <br />rest there, traveller.<br /><br />Michael Shepherd<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/in-the-spirit-of-rumi-32-the-garden/
