the heat of your sigh

He saw the lightning flash
and yearned toward the East.
If it had flashed West
west he'd have turned.

I burn for the lightning,
for the flash,
not for this or that --
some piece of ground.

The East wind told me
a tradition about them, from
the wreck of my heart, from
ecstasy, sorrow, my disarray

From drunkenness, reason,
longing, the wound of love,
from tears, my eyelids,
the fire, my heart:

He whom you desire
is between your ribs,
turned side to side
in the heat of your sigh.

I told them tell him
he's the one
who kindled the fire
blazing in my heart.

It is extinguished only
in our coming together. If
it burns out of control,
who can be blamed for loving?
['The Hadith of Love', from Love Elegies from Ibn 'Arabi and New Poems, in Station of Desire; Michael A. Sells, ed. & comp.]