a way between voice and presence

.

Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu

Buddhist, sufi, or zen. Not any religion

.

or cultural system. I am not from the East

or the West, not out of the ocean or up

.

from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not

composed of elements at all. I do not exist,

.

am not an entity in this world or in the next,

did not descend from Adam and Eve or any

.

origin story. My place is placeless, a trace

of the traceless. Neither body or soul.

.

I belong to the beloved, have seen the two

worlds as one and that one call to and know,

.

first, last, outer, inner, only that

breath breathing human being.

.

There is a way between voice and presence

where information flows.

.

In disciplined silence it opens.

With wandering talk it closes.

.

~ Rumi

translation by Coleman Barks

.