The Theater Of Freedom: Hafiz Poem | The Hafiz Series

This poem imagines God as a painter creating an unflinchingly honest portrait of you — one that shows real tenderness, not empty flattery. Through it, Hafiz explores what it means to be truly seen: the ache of that honesty, and the long, patient companionship of a love that stays close through years of change. It closes with a longing for full union — sitting together at last inside the "infinite performances of God."

The Theater of Freedom' is a selection from 'The Subject Tonight Is Love: 60 Wild and Sweet Poems Inspired by Hafiz' by Daniel Ladinsky, copyright 1996, 2003, with permission.

Transcript

The Theater of Freedom. In my divine studio. What I have been working on is this. Painting the truth? Revealing a more realistic picture of God. Tearing down the cruel walls that separate you from the tenderness of fire. Someone must be withholding the crucial lines in all those stories you've heard of our friend. For there is still too much fear and pallor upon your cheeks. And I rarely see you in the marvelous theater of freedom. Hafiz knows you could not describe him, Even if we sat side by side on a caravan for years. Even if we slept close in my desert tent. And you became familiar with the holy scent that the sun and my master leave whenever they visit me. For something has happened to your youthful passions, That great fuel you once had to defend yourself against becoming tamed. And your eyes now often tell me that your once vital talent to extract joy from the air has fallen into a sleep. All that you could ever say of me can only describe my camel's tail. And that coarse hair that is barely visible sometimes on the left side of the moon's nose. In my divine studio, Where I am sitting right now, Crafting your heart, Lyre, And flute? I long for the day when you will join me in knowing the extraordinary humor. And all the enchanting realities. Of the infinite performances. Of God.

Reviews

I so often marvel—and feel a nagging pique of envy, almost—upon finding another’s winsome ways of expressing the ineffable. Here, this poet does just that. My favorite bit of sagacity, so well expressed, is the allusion to the person who held “the-once great talent of extracting joy from the air.”

Man, do I wish I could write like that! 🤗
Thanks for digging this out and sharing.

Thank you for this reading and "experience "! The closing bars are like a magnificent sunrise. 🌅🙏💝