OPreach
Dominican Preaching through Word and Image
What Should We Do about that Moon?
One of my favorite poets is Hafiz. I thought of his poem a couple of weeks ago when I saw this moon . . . not even full.
A wine bottle fell from a wagon and
broke open in a field.
That night one hundred beetles and all their cousins
Gathered
and did some serious binge drinking.
They even found some seed husks nearby
and began to play them like drums and whirl.
This made God very happy.
Then the “night candle” rose into the sky
and one drunk creature, laying down his instrument,
said to his friend ~ for no apparent
Reason,
“What should we do about that moon?”
Seems to Hafiz
Most everyone has laid aside the music
Tackling such profoundly useless
Questions.
– Hafiz –
Normally with Ladinsky one can get a fairly clear moral message from Hafiz. This one is more ambiguous. Is the music good, or the question? The drunk has been playing music- and then stops and contemplates. Changing, perhaps, from Martha to Mary.
For me the challenge is to not spend as much time as I do, trying to find answers to questions that have none. I need to just enjoy the moon. Of course any particular poem says many different things to us – at different times. Sometimes I’m Martha; sometimes I’m Mary.