BREATH

  
Are you looking for me? I am in the next seat.
My shoulder is against yours.
You will not find me in stupas, not in Indian shrine rooms, nor in synagogues, nor in cathedrals:
not in masses, nor kirtans, not in legs winding around your own neck, nor in eating nothing but vegetables.
When you really look for me, you will see me instantly --
you will find me in the tiniest house of time.
Kabir says: Student, tell me, what is God?
He is the breath inside the breath.

-- Kabir (translated by Robert Bly)

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"Breaths"

Listen more often to things than to beings
Listen more often to things than to beings
'Tis the ancestor's breath when the fire's voice is heard
'Tis the ancestor's breath in the voice of the waters

Those who have died have never never left
The dead are not under the earth
They are in the rustling trees
They are in the groaning woods
They are in the crying grass
They are in the moaning rocks
The dead are not under the earth

Those who have died have never never left
The dead have a pact with the living
They are in the woman's breast
They are in the wailing child
They are with us in the home
They are with us in the crowd
The dead have a pact with the living

So listen more often to things than to beings
Listen more often to things than to beings
'Tis the ancestor's breath when the fire's voice is heard
Tis the ancestor's breath in the voice of the waters

-- Diop