Two poems to begin this lovely month of August by Kabir and Louise Gluck

Listen to the Heart

He is reflected in the mirror
Yet He is everywhere.
When the mirror of the heart is clean,
Only then He's clearly seen.
Like water makes ice,
And ice becomes water and steam,
So when hearts melt and join,
They become one as a running stream.

Kabir


The Undertaking

The darkness lifts, imagine, in your lifetime.
There you are - cased in clean bark you drift
through weaving rushes, fields flooded with cotton.
You are free. The river films with lilies,
shrubs appear, shoots thicken into palm.
And now
all fear gives way: the light
looks after you, you feel the waves' goodwill
as arms widen over the water; Love,

the key is turned. Extend yourself -
it is the Nile, the sun is shining,
everywhere you turn is luck.

Louise Gluck