The Setting of the Stars

The Setting of the
Stars
I swear by the setting of the stars
And truly it is a magnificent oath, if you but knew
Qur’an 56:75-76
The story of longing that became recorded in this book
is wholly without fault, for Hafez taught it to me.

© 2016 Oludamini
All Rights Reserved

Istiādha
In your lap I seek refuge, from all of my pain
From all of life’s pleasures, and all of its games
From all that I’ve lost, and all I have gained
From all of my efforts, and all of their strains
From Heaven’s bright gardens, and from Hell’s dark
flames
From space and from time, and all they contain
From everything that either waxes or wanes
From everything that’s been touched by my stain
From all words and all names and all need to explain
and from you, all else is just vanity, feigned
1

The Setting of the Stars
The stars all fell into your heart’s well
glistening out through your night eyes
The stars all whirl around you wondering
at your sheer moonlight disguise
The stars are set like diamond droplets
in the dark sky of your hair
The stars all set and fade like dewdrops
when your sun-like face appears
The stars are setting down behind
the red horizons of your lips
And I can’t stop myself staring
into that beautiful eclipse
And I swear all I want from life:
for you to take mine with that kiss
2

My whole world grows wan and dim without you
and yet it all fades in the light within you
Like a mirror that holds the Heavens in view
it seems God has gathered the cosmos in You
Like mountaintop meadows, adorned with pearl dew
I see the whole world reflected in You
Or rather it’s your eyes I see all this through
But no, it’s rather, in them, I see you
How strange, O my Shaykh, that I’m your pupil
and yet, in my eyes, you are mine too
My eyelids, your beds, and your comforters too
but my eyes have no place to rest but in You
O you with the moon’s face, and bright sun’s own hue
Let me be stained, soaked and dyed all in You
A dead man walking, my own life is through
I’ve been washed and wrapped and buried in You
Though Solomon’s wealth is legend, it’s true
The mines of my mind lie buried in You
This winter’s been long, but the spring blooms anew
for all seasons combine in the sun within You
There’s a hole in my soul, that I lost my heart through
Thank God that I finally found it in You
3

Variation on Hafez’s Ghazal #1
Hey son, pour me another one
for love is sweet, and my life’s done
Fill up a cup with wine’s warm light
my heart feels like it weighs a ton
Love starts out like a melody
but ends in tears, dry, without sound
How can kids lying on the beach
know what it’s like for we who’ve drowned?
How can those who’ve yet to begin
know what it’s like to face your end?
To sleep upon a bed of waves
beneath a sheet woven of wind
In love, there’s nothing to hold on
to, save love’s self—no star, no friend
so when you catch a whiff of Love
or your heart beats from its far drum
just drop the world, leave it behind
forget yourself and come.
4

Baye Niasse
A garden of light in a desert of flame
because of your love, the earth burns the same
Who knew human clay could hold such fire
The breath of your words makes love’s flames leap higher
If not for the flood that flowed from your pen
that flowed from Kosi, out to the world’s end
If not for the flood that poured from your eyes
and ran rivers to the beloved’s side
we’d all be burnt up by your lightning sighs
but still this love burns us out from inside
If not for this passion you lit in our hearts
we’d all be lost, drowned in your brilliant dark
O where have you gone, Baye, and what have you seen?
And what have you tasted, behind all our dreams?
and what of the rest of us caught in between
the sunset’s last gasp and sunrise’s first gleams?
When the Messenger comes, who’s his bright shadow?
Who’s that who comes floating behind him like snow?
Who’s back there, black, gleaming,
just like his eyelashes?
Baye Niasse is, Baye Niasse is,
Baye Niasse is, Baye Niasse is…
5

6

Solomon’s Pool
When you looked at my polished heart’s shine
you just saw your own reflected in mine
And baring your legs, you hiked up your soul
to wade in my water, so clear and so cold
But I’m too jealous to let you baptize
your body in anything else but my eyes
So you’ll walk on water, just like the Messiah
and dance across skies, like sunset’s smooth fires
You sounded the depths, and to your surprise
found it but a trick to uncover your thighs
The clothes that you bought, all the things that you thought
in my mirror’s undertow, are all swept aside
And so now you walk with my heart underfoot
we’re all alone, lift up your head, love, and look
Let me lift off that veil, since it’s just you and I
it’s cold out there darling, come into my eyes…
7

The lawh of the lovers
is covered with signs
its ink always running,
edges scorched by sighs
watered by poor eyes
that never run dry
it sprouts out new branches
that bloom as they die
It carves its name in
lovers who pass by
and inscribes their names
into sunset skies
The lawh of the lovers
is covered with signs
And no one can tell
what’s hidden inside.
8

9

What's in a name?
A ripple on a river of ink
reflecting a constellation above
A wave upon an ocean of breath
mirroring the sun's dazzling love
My words are inky-black, hot coals
blow on them, bloom flames of all hues
my thoughts are foggy, clouded mirrors
breathe on them, kiss them, wipe them clear
then look upon your secret truths.
10

to read a poem is to free a bird...
Within bold rhythm's bars and rhymes
wait wingèd words, like souls, to fly
in through your eyes, one at a time
and lift your body from inside
pupils dilate, locks melt like ice
and birds in murmuration rise
like swarms of smoke into the sky
they rise and dip and float and dive
as free as light, wild as the wise
11

When I tried to write
the way you make me feel
The pen broke through the paper
like fruit shedding its peel
When I tried to sing
a song about our love
my voice cracked, broken from
weights mountains can’t dream of
When my hand touched the guitar
the strings snapped like exploding stars
When I tried to speak
about my love to you
My words were washed away
by tears like morning dew
then burned up to ash
by sighs hotter than noon
When I tried to write
my love, the paper tore
the pen broke in my hand
‘cause my heart had broke in yours
12

Your black-hearted eye
brought drought to my mind
Where words once had flowed
now thought-beds run dry
All poetry’s flown
south to warmer climes
The only rain left in my head’s from my eyes
My tree has drunk deep of earth’s life and sun’s death
and drunk, its cheeks flush in the shades of sun’s flesh
dropping, like cares, its aeons of sunsets
and wafting haikus on the weight of sun’s breath
and fastening earth’s glories around the sun’s neck
13

14

Laylah Mubarakah
Your jealousy hid your beauty
from me in everything
So that I found my only rest
in running after Thee
Every pleasure lost its taste
and each joy, its colour
So that I found my happy place
bound up in your collar
So hide me from your jealously
or wrap me up in your Mercy
to hide me from your Majesty
or please, if you won’t set me free
At least allow me to reside
in the apple of your eye
I’m jealous too, I want to hide
all your light inside my mind
But I can’t hide from you, it seems
and nor can you from me
How can you hide the blazing sun
within skies so empty?
Where can you hide your vast ocean
save in the waves of my blue sea?
Let’s play again this hide and seek:…
15

…
I’ll be you and you be me
Ready or not, then, here I come
so much faster than 1, 2, 3…
Ahh but there you go again
quicker than my eye can see
But ah its so much nicer to
just chill and let it be
I may be you, but you’re not me
and yet, somehow, I am me
We’re outfits of this coy Beauty
and this love’s something more than “we”
I’m so jealous, I hide our love
away from my own jealously
And so it’s out there all secret
hidden for every one to see
16

I've never seen my love wear clothes
she wraps herself in her hair's light
that flutters in winds as she flows
in brilliance darker than the night
My mind melts to sweat on her skin
like snowflakes o'er a dancing flame
each drop, a world's enfolded in,
glides, glistening round her beauty's frame
Her clothing is her nakedness
-but when we kiss, we close our eyes
and nakedness is her clothing
-As truth is only told by lies
All that I gain, I forefeit
my disguises, all self-portraits
All I've tried to hide is opened
seeds' secrets are spilled by orchids
My love is wholly without shame
and I likewise am shameless
Because we are each other's clothes
we're naked still, yet blameless
17

Your two lips bind beauty’s Qur’an
your eyelashes are long koans
there’re sutras written on your skin
each breath and every gasp a hymn
your heartbeat is a sacred drum
where all sounds go, where life comes from
your hands are two golden icons
that cast my bones’ divination
my soul’s the sky, and you’re the sun
between our breaths and our poems
(between them, though our hearts are one)
are meadows where the gazelles run
18

Have you ever felt a waterfall come crashing through your heart?
and carve calligraphy like rivers running in the dark
Have you ever felt your body flood with love beyond all sense?
and wash away all shame and doubt, all regret and pretense
Have you ever felt beauty unbearable bloom deep inside?
that’s how I feel each time you lift your eyes up to meet mine
Heaven's your head on a pillow
resting right there next to mine
Paradise is seeing your eyes
in mine in yours with mine
Your eyes hold flecks of love's sun's gold
and my heart is its mine
and yet despite this all, thank God
I'm not veiled in my mind
19

Your scent crept in my house
like a thief before the dawn
I opened up my eyes
and the roof itself was gone
Your perfume stole my senses
and my heart, and all my mind
The full moon and the bright rain
were all that it left behind
Well, them, and deep down inside
this sweet and glowing pain
Oh how I wish that
you’d come back again
And just finish off
what your scent began
Come steal my life and
my loneliness too
God above knows I’m
so useless without you.
20

Your beauty is such
a strange alchemy
It poured silver tears
down my golden cheek
Your lightning smile wrung
sunlight from dark skies
And loosed floods of pearls
from my smoldering eyes
Your face is red sun
your hair, night mercury
You glance made gold light
of my leaden body
21

These bones are the wood
my soul is the fire
these words are the smoke
inhaled by desire
The stars are your eyes
reflected in sky
the sun rises when
your two lips meet mine
The moon’s a single shining pearl
hanging in your hair’s night sky
and when you turn around it’s like
the dawn, a flood of blinding light
22

Your name makes prison paradise
and turns poisons to points of light
and melts sweet streams from mountain ice
fragrant fountains of pure delight
The sun and moon are naught but moths
fluttering around your candle face
the stars are melting, candle-like
in vain envy to match your grace
23

My eyes are turning blue
from gazing at the sky
my heart is burning too
from longing for your eyes
I wish I were the wind
mingling with your sweet breath
at the borders of your mouth
where the sunrise meets the West
I wish I were the wind
running soft hands through your hair
curling round your waist
tracing the secrets hidden there
I wish I were the wind
carrying perfumes to you
so you could breathe me in
and sigh me out, scorching the moon
24

My heart's warm cries keep me alive
and if not for its rosy tears
my soul would wither, dead and dry
but while my Nile flows red as wine
my body lives ev'n as it dies
burning, melting, candle-like
lightning bouncing twixt earth and sky
reflections in each other's eyes
Pain is pain's disguise denied
with paradise hidden inside
embrace it, climb atop the skies
let go and kiss yourself goodbye
25

One night my lover said to me
Leave it be and flee with me
And if the world rebels and raises bloodthirsty armies
And if your arms should lose their strength and terror clutch your knees
If cold fears get hold of your soul with icy hands and squeeze
And when you're out of breath and time, and your eyes can barely see
Then flee to me, just leave it be
And if your friends' shadows should turn and become enemies
And if the moon and sun should burn and fall like dying leaves
And if the sky should become firm and block out all your dreams
And when day's music starts to fade, and dark comes silently
Come dance with me, just let it be
And if your thoughts should bite and sting like swarms of angry bees
And if you curse the light and want to burrow in your grief
And when your soul will fight and try to keep you far from me
Just set her free and come kiss me
Just leave it be, run off with me
And if the moon and sun should burn and fall like dying leaves
And if their ashes get blown out into stars by the breeze
And if the books return to trees and all the words should turn to leaves
And all the worlds should melt away and all the oceans freeze
You'll never find me anywhere but right here on my knees
26

The incense of my roasting heart
filled up the two horizons,
and drew lovers from all around
the hungry and enlightened
but its smoke blew them all away
like bees, love-stung and blinded
and none could stand the heat but you,
my heart, the flame inside it
27

Souls scatter and shatter
like light and its sparks
against the sharp edges
of your diamond heart
How could a bright face
so full of beauty
be so cold and free
of all sympathy
How strange that I’m lost in longing for you
while you always find your way into my dreams
For while I’m absent from your heart it seems
that you’ll be living inside mine always
When your love has burned the stars from the sky
My dust will dance up to be by your side
28

29

Caught in between…
Food’s sweet in the mouth, and then satisfying
but stuck in the throat, it’s just pain and coughing
Seas have their pearls, and trees, their canopy
but on beach’s deserts, I’m caught in between
The wooded path beckons, the hearth’s welcoming
But a locked doorway’s stoop is no place to be
The knife’s sides are mirrors reflecting beauty
but woe to the piece that gets caught in between
Home has its comforts and as does journey’s end
hardships are for those of us caught in between
too warm for refreshment, but too cold for tea
no light from this fire of cold and wet leaves
I’m prone, paralyzed between sleep and dream
‘twixt waking death’s shroud and a life of sleeping
neither with or without you it seems I can be
the sun starts to shine, but it goes on raining
30

I’m just an upside-down shadow of yours…
My shadow has never been far from my feet
And you’ve been stuck in my head always
My heart is where you and your shadow meet
Who are you to cast shadows such as me?
And what is this light that brings it to be?
And where is the ground on which I am seen?
and who am I to ask so impudently?
I’ll just wait until noon makes one of these three.
31

How can you always slip away in silence from my sight
while you won't let anyone else join you inside my heart?
How come you spun me out into this separation's night
if you intend for my own end to be one with its start?
In separation, what is lost? In union, what is gained?
If our love burns right through the two, and our hearts share one
name?
If what is not should cease to be, and what is shall remain
Then why shadowy sufferings, and why, my love, these games?
And why all these diverse longings, and why this single pain?
And why so many questions, when their answer's all the same
And why all of these why's while your beauty's so rare, so plain
And why all these complaints and lies, if truth is just your face?
But "why" is talking's dying breath, just one more gasp till it gives out
And silence is the narrow pass connecting my heart to your mouth
32

The sunlight makes flowers of leaves
and pours beauty on everything
crack open sky’s robin’s egg blue
turn the world inside out,
let the sunlight yolk through
33

34

O wind of the dawn
Blow into my breast
Make the embers of my heart
Rise up from their death
O wind of the dawn
Blow into my breast
Sway my veins and let them shake
Love's birds out from their nests
O wind of the dawn
Blow into my breast
Make my blood ripple
your reflection with each breath
O wind of the dawn
my heart's caught in your grasp
your spirit's within
whirling round inside it trapped
You can't hold it in
and I can't give it back
whisper something in my ear
take my soul with each gasp
35

I heard, beyond sound, music
a beauty without limit
in her perfume's light sweetness
I found a bliss infinite
I tasted moonlight's cool lips
erasing all my limits
my senses all became one
on the tip of your tongue
36

We all long for her loveliness
on earth, in skies above
There is no other beauty
and nothing else to love
I said, “all my love is yours
all loves and for all time.”
She said, “it’s only fitting since
every beauty is mine.”
Love loves Love
and Love is One
that is all there is below
and all there is above
“If not for you I would not know love
If not for love I would not know you”
but shhhh now, I’m busy falling in love with you
O Majestic, my Beautiful
37

Index of First Lines
A garden of light in a desert of flame 5
Food’s sweet in the mouth, and then satisfying 30
Have you ever felt a waterfall 19
Heaven's your head on a pillow 19
Hey son, pour me another one 4
How can you always slip away in silence from my sight 32
How strange that I’m lost in longing for you 28
I heard, beyond sound, music 36
I wish I were the wind 24
In your lap I seek refuge, from all of my pain 1
I've never seen my love wear clothes 17
My eyes are turning blue 24
My heart's warm cries keep me alive 25
My shadow has never been far from my feet 31
My tree has drunk deep of earth’s life and sun’s death 13
My whole world grows wan and dim without you 3
O wind of the dawn 35
One night my lover said to me 26
Souls scatter and shatter 28
The lawh of the lovers 8
The incense of my roasting heart 27
The stars all fell into your heart’s well 2
The sun and moon are naught but moths 23
The sunlight makes flowers of leaves 33

These bones are the wood 22
We all long for her loveliness 37
When you looked at my polished heart’s shine 7
When I tried to write 12
Within bold rhythm's bars and rhymes 11
Your beauty is such 21
Your black-hearted eye 13
Your jealousy hid your beauty 15
Your name makes prison paradise 23
Your scent crept in my house 20
Your two lips bind beauty’s Qur’an 18