The New Guide

Hafiz wants to change a lot of things.
He wants to change, for example,
the way that we think of the world
as a courtroom,
as if there were some guilty people,
some judges and some bailiffs,
court stenographers and some witnesses.
He says: “All that is gone, it’s over;
this is no longer a courtroom we’re living in.
We’re living now in a “caravan”-

where people come and go and

there’s a kind of constant meeting

and celebration.

This is not a courtroom anymore.

The time of judging who’s drunk, who’s sober,

who’s right or wrong,

who is closer to God or farther away-

all that is over.

This caravan is led instead by a great delight-

the simple joy that sits with us now,

that is the grace.

 

— Hafiz, it may be that

you’ve just poured a toast that will wash

Love clean of all its pictures”