Length: 1,000 words Instructions: Choose one of the following poems from The Essential Rumi:
p. 3: “A Community of the Spirit”
pp. 9 ff.: “I Have Five Things to Say”
pp. 20 f.: “Enough Words?”
pp. 79 f.: “A Mouse and a Frog”
pp. 95 f.: “In Between Stories”
pp. 125 f.: “Meadowsounds”
pp. 136 f.: “Cry Out in Your Weakness”
pp. 259 f.: “The Private Banquet”
p. 287: “Daybreak”
p. 290: “As Ripeness Comes”
Your task is to offer an interpretation of Rumi’s poem. Begin by identifying as many of the images and metaphors and references as you can, putting them in historical context. Is the poem “typical” of Rumi, as you have briefly come to understand him (at least as you have come to understand him through Coleman Barks’ translations)? Are there any “points of contact” for you in this poem with your own experience?
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