Don't Seek Water; Get Thirst.

Don't Seek Water; Get Thirst

   The creation, substance and possibility
   were made for the purpose of relieving need
   and distress is the witness of worthiness
   that seekers may meet with the sought.

   Wherever there is a pain, the cure is drawn
   Wherever a want, the bounty goes there
   Where a troubling question, an answer appears
   To the stranded ship, water comes

   Do not seek water
   get thirst

   Until the baby cries
   the mother is dry

   Go running
   'til you gasp

   become a want
   then you'll hear the thunderclap,
   turn your face up
   to rain

   Your need is not less than that of your garden
   When it is dry, you dig and pump
   to bring water

   For your dry soul
   thirsting
   clouds of Mercy are gathering
   ready to burst open

   If you would hear
   the heavens speak,
   be thirst!

--Bob Engel, based on a poem by 13th-century Persian poet Mowlana Jalaluddin Rumi, translated by Reynold Nicholson