! In The Spirit Of Rumi - 8 Poem by Michael Shepherd

O My Beloved
when I first cast eyes on You,

if You had looked as I expected
I would have greeted you as an old friend

whom I had waited for,
knowing I would recognise You from afar;

but instead, you appear to me
so unexpectedly, in so many new disguises -

as a baby; in the face of a passing stranger,
as a new flower; waiting in the shade of a tree –

that, taken by surprise, I see only You
before I see all else.

This is Your greatest gift to me,
beyond all old, beyond all new,

O My Beloved.