Ceremony

Yesterday we sat on cushions

Underneath a tree.

Cake and chocolate muffins we ate

And conversed with cups of tea.

Today I looked at an illustrated book of poems

By the mystic Rumi.

Almost every Islamic image was of figures

Bent at the knee.

In apple orchards or garden courtyards these lovers

Met in beauty.

Adorations in every gesture whether serving

Food or poetry.

Their garments flowed into the earth via

The cloth at their feet.

Bowls and pots and cups and plates were rocks

In an embroidered stream.

In the undergrowth of plants around might crouch

A hare unseen.

Or peer behind a distant bough a deer

As though paying heed.

For still were the minds in such sunlit glades

In such a ceremony.