Birdwings
Your grief for what you’ve lost lifts a mirror
up to where you are bravely working.
Expecting the worst, you look and instead,
here’s the joyful face you’ve been wanting to see.
Your hand opens and closes and opens and closes.
If it were a fist or always stretched open,
you would be paralyzed.
Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding
the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated
as birdwings.
From the Essential Rumi
Translations by Coleman Barks