Jennifer Ferraro

jennyFerraro A poet, artist, and performer, Jennifer Ferraro teaches poetry and writing at universities and in workshop settings. Author of the book of poems Divine Nostalgia, she has toured widely with the Latif Bolat Ensemble, playing frame drum and reciting poetry with devotional dance. She is a student of the Sufi path in the lineage of Hazrat Inayat Khan. To learn more about Jennifer Ferraro, visit www.jenniferferraro.com.

Initiation, by Jennifer Ferraro

Initiation
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The Promise

There is something I wanted

before I wanted this,

before I became a closed fist

and the earth was closed to me;

There is something I needed

before I needed this,

before I huddled inward

to shield the need from absence—

There is something I hoped for

that was promised,

there was a kindness and a tenderness—

there was a kiss

that I longed for

and imagined to exist

before this

exile.

There was something I wanted

before I wanted this—

there was a kiss.

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Ümmi Sinan (16th c.)

With a Thousand Remedies,
What Would I Do?
In this world I have one affliction.
With a thousand remedies,
what would I do?

I have but one darling in my heart.
With a thousand lives
what would I do?

Since I attained to this loving,
my life is a sacrifice to the Friend.
My abode is the traceless.
With some corner in space
what would I do? Read more...