Here’s a video of a humble little home on the west coast of Ireland, on a plot of land called Ardeamush, which is Irish for “James’ Height.” My family lived in this home at least as far back as 1775. It’s now in ruins, but the land is still occupied by Considines. By the grace of God…… Continue reading Journey to Our Ancestral Home in Lisdoonvarna
I pay respect to Ireland, the Emerald Isle, “the land of saints and scholars,” that tiny little island on the outskirts of Europe. Let us reflect upon her ancient glories, her yearning for knowledge, her passion for understanding the mysteries of the world. Let us never forget the conditions of those who came before us,…… Continue reading Poem: I Pay Respect to Ireland
Your tombstone stands among the rest Neglected and alone The name and date are chiseled out On polished marble stone It reaches out to all who care It is too late to mourn You did not know that I exist You died and I was born Yet each of us are cells of you In…… Continue reading Ancestor’s Poem
Love is patient, Love is kind. * It does not envy, It does not boast, It is not proud. * It does not dishonor others, It is not self-seeking, It is not easily angered, It keeps no record of wrongs. * Love does not delight in evil But rejoices with the truth. * It always…… Continue reading A Biblical Poem of Love
The writings of Jalalud’din Rumi, the 13th century Sufi Muslim philosopher from modern-day Afghanistan, and the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, the 19th century Christian transcendentalist from Boston, Massachusetts, are filled with lessons that enrich every human soul. Rumi’s and Emerson’s similar thoughts on religious tolerance, love, and care for the soul can help bridge…… Continue reading Rumi and Emerson: A Bridge Between the West and the Muslim World
I took this picture at Anwar al Madina mosque on Dublin’s northside during Mawlid 2013.
By Akbar Ahmed Source: Washington Post – On Faith Allah has many names Allah is Rahman He is Rahim He is also Ghafoor And known as Noor Some have called Him Zeus Others address Him as Deus Some name Him Brahma Others see Him in Atma If you want to know Him, whatever His appellation…… Continue reading A Ramadan meditation in verse
This picture was taken at the annual Muslim Day Parade in New York City in the fall of 2008. I did not take this picture in black and white. It has been doctored using some software.
About a year ago Melony and I visited a beautiful place called Glencolumbkille, Ireland. We found the beautiful Maghera Beach on a memorable day trip.
I took this picture in the summer of 2012 in Glencolumbkille, Ireland. Glencolumbkille is located in a quiet area on the coast of Donegal. My lady and I had just returned to our place after a magical drive to the abandoned seaside village called Port.
“I searched for God among the Christians and on the Cross and therein I found Him not. I went into the ancient temples of idolatry; no trace of Him was there. I entered the mountain cave of Hira and then went as far as Qandhar but God I found not. With set purpose I fared…… Continue reading Where Do You Search When You’re Searching for Him?
Last night I attended the “Muslim Women in the Arts” exhibit at the American Islamic Congress on Newbury Street in Boston. The featured artist was Nada Farhat, a women originally from Saudi Arabia, currently living in Boston. Farhat describes her art as “really a kind of healing soul… My art is who I am… Paint…… Continue reading Saudi American woman pays artful tribute to victims of Boston bombings
I’m a Catholic but I think Islam is beautiful Some think I’m interested in converting No, I’m not it just makes me think of the one above Whether it’s called Allah or God it doesn’t matter I think of him I think of heaven A place of no worries A place of peace A place…… Continue reading Allah or God, it Doesn’t Matter to Me
The Man in the Glass When you get what you want in your struggle for self, And the world makes you king for a day, Then go to the mirror and look at yourself, And see what that man has to say. * For it isn’t your Father, or Mother, or Wife, Who judgement upon…… Continue reading Inspiring poem: “The Man in the Glass”
I took this picture in the summer of 2011 at “The Rock” in Dover, Massachusetts. “The Rock” is one of my favorite getaways, a serene place I often go to contemplate the world around me. That’s me in the picture. I placed my camera on the timer to capture the glorious sunset. I’ve included Rumi’s poetry to…… Continue reading Where is your soul from?
A reminder to help those in need during Lent. Originally appeared in the Irish Independent. 14 DECEMBER 2011 What is it like to be homeless? Most people never even ponder such a question. Craig is a homeless poet who writes his long poems on the pavement near the Molly Malone statue outside Trinity College’s walls.…… Continue reading Helping the homeless during Lent
By Akbar Ahmed in Huffington Post It was love at first sight –and it was true with the breathless passion that the years could not dim and like a faithful lover I have returned again and again Half a century ago Cambridge had that effect on me as we strutted about or glided on bicycles…… Continue reading Poems: First love
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears. And how else can it be? The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned…… Continue reading Poems: Speaking to you of Joy and Sorrow
Picture/poem © Craig Considine After Kahlil Gibran Sons of my ancient mother, you riders of the tides, How often have you sailed in my dreams. And now you come in my awakening, which is my deeper dream. * Ready am I to go, and my eagerness with sails full set awaits the wind. Only another breath…… Continue reading Poems: Boundless seafarer
The light: that spark, that thought in your head, the wisdom from without and in turn within. Give thanks for without it we’d be empty and stricken by blaze. I dream before I even dream and I think before I even think, I’m ahead even when I’m behind and I have little idea of how it happens. But it does,…… Continue reading Poem: Divine light
After Bastami, or who may have received it from Abu Ali. Here it reads in Nicholson: Creatures equal subjects to changing ‘states’, but some people have no ‘state’, because his vestiges are affaced and his essence annihilated by the essence of another. Traces lost in another’s traces.
After Reynold A. Nicholson * Jesus passed by three men. Their bodies were lean and their faces pale. He asked them, ‘What has brought you to this plight?’ They answered, ‘Fear of the Fire’. * Jesus said, ‘You fear a thing created, and it behoves God that he should save those who fear’. * Jesus left them…… Continue reading Poem: Out of plight
Listen to others. Keep your mind open to new ideas. But when you know someone is wrong, pounce on that. Explain to them why they’re wrong. Don’t hold back. Show no mercy to inferior thoughts. You’ve your mind, your convictions. At the end of the day, what else do you have? No point in wasting…… Continue reading Poem: Pub lesson
After Marx Masses of labourers, crowded into the factory, are organized like soldiers, as privates of the industrial army. They are placed under the command of a perfect hierarchy, of officers and sergeants. Not only are they slaves of the bourgeois class, and of the bourgeois State; they are daily and hourly enslaved by the…… Continue reading Poem: The ravage of capitalism
After Emerson What is the hardest task in the world? To think. I would put myself in the attitude to look in the eye an abstract truth, and I cannot. I blench and withdraw on this side and on that. I seem to know what he meant who said, No man can see God face…… Continue reading Poem: How do you think?
First published in Irish Independent What is it like to be homeless? Most people never even ponder such a question. Craig is a homeless poet who writes his long poems on the pavement near the Molly Malone statue outside Trinity College’s walls. I walked by Craig about one year ago. I handed him a one-euro coin…… Continue reading Poem: Homeless man in Dublin
After Emerson Every soul is a celestial Venus to every other soul. The heart has its sabbaths and jubilees in which the world appears as a hymeneal feast, and all natural sounds and the circles of the seasons are erotic odes and dances. Love is omnipresent in nature as motive and reward. Love is our…… Continue reading Poem: The sentiment of love
After Emerson When the act of reflection takes place in the mind, when we look at ourselves in the light of thought, we discover that our life is embosomed in beauty. Behind us, as we go, all things assume pleasing forms, as clouds do far off. Not only things familiar and stale, but even the…… Continue reading Poem: What’s out there
We live in extreme times. Do they call for extreme measures? Who was it that said you cannot defeat something by using their weapons? There is guidance in The Trumpet of Conscience, if only we heed as he did: ‘Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only…… Continue reading Poems: Multiplicity
The living Heaven thy prayers respect, House at once and architect, Quarrying man’s rejected hours, Builds therewith eternal towers; Sole and self-commanded works, Fears not undermining days, Grows by decays, And, by the famous might that lurks In reaction and recoil, Males flame to freeze, and ice to boil; Forging, through swart arms of Offense, The silver…… Continue reading Poems: Spiritual Laws
I hear you say, with a cancerous rage, ‘LET’S TAKE OUR COUNTRY BACK!’ But where are you taking it back to, who are you taking it back with, and who are you taking it back from? Why are some people joining you, while others are not? Why do some people yearn for the past, while…… Continue reading Poem: A racing country
*Dedicated to Professor Akbar Ahmed He serves esoteric and philosophic truths, across the traditions, in pursuit of those truths, so that the darkness can be lifted, and the light can shine through. © Craig Considine
Ibn ʿArabī (Arabic: ابن عربي) (Murcia July 28, 1165 – Damascus November 10, 1240) was an Arab Andalusian Sufi mystic and philosopher. He is sometimes referred to as “the Son of Plato” (Ibn Aflatun) for his devotion to Plato. My heart has grown capable of taking on all forms It is a pasture for gazelles A table for the Torah A convent for Christians…… Continue reading A Poem of Ibn Arabi’s
Rumi, the great Sufi poet, was actually a scholar of sharia law (Islamic law). His responsibilities included making legal rulings and giving unapologetic lectures on how to resolve conflicts. One day, a man in rags approached Rumi and changed everything. The following exchange, according to legend, occurred: Pointing to Rumi’s legal books, the man in rags…… Continue reading Religion: Rumi – from scholar to saint
I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes, But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong. Tomorrow, I’ll be at the table When company comes. Nobody’ll dare Say to me, “Eat in the kitchen,” Then. Besides, They’ll see how beautiful I am…… Continue reading Poems: Langston Hughes’ great poem ‘I, Too’
Someone who doesn’t make flowers makes thorns. If you’re not building rooms where wisdom can be openly spoken, you’re building a prison. SHAMS OF TABRIZ I found this on page XI of Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation by Eboo Patel.
I just picked up Eboo Patel’s Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation at New England Mobile Book Fair in Newton, Massachusetts. To be honest, I wasn’t searching for it; I pretty much stumbled across it randomly in the extremely small ‘Islam’ section (it’s small…… Continue reading Quoted: Whitman, Tagore, and Rumi
After Sheikh Muzaffer A companion once asked the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him (PBUH)): Who is the most important person for the soul in Islam?’ The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) replied: ‘The mother’. The companion pressed the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) for more information. ‘Who is the next most important person?’ Once more, the Prophet Muhammad…… Continue reading Prophet Muhammad on the Importance of Mothers
Arrogant, and a know-it-all, who cannot be taught anything. * Indifferent, spiritually empty, dictated by relativism. * Empty, on the inside, seeking perfection on the outside, * Lonely, insecure, with no direction. * Veering, losing sight of family, running from relationships that matter. * Selfish, closing in on the self, the ego and the cliques. * Broken,…… Continue reading Evolution
An inviting path, under the shade of a gigantic tree and the shadow of a bird flying above. The bird chirps, as another one sings. The aura is over me. * There’s an opening ahead, where the water, crashing at the falls eliminates the silence. There, on a small cliff, I stand, embracing the mist, which, ever…… Continue reading Poem: Spirit at Hemlock George
One of the most famous Sufi thinkers ever is Rabia, who wrote in the 8th-century. She was born in modern-day Basra, Iraq. According to folklore, Rabia was an orphan and ultimately sold into slavery; she almost had nothing except, of course, her thoughts. Legend has it that Rabia was once seen praying with a halo…… Continue reading Carry these in your hands
Lovers trust in the wealth of their hearts while the all-knowing mind sees only thorns ahead. * To wander in the fields of flowers pull the thorns from your heart. – Rumi
Rumi’s inspiration progresses from the inner to the outer, from spiritual impulse to verbal expression. Thus, the more we are able to penetrate the outer form of his words, the closer we may come to catching a glimpse of the Source from which they came. This requires a considerable mental leap. Rumi is aware of…… Continue reading The Source of Rumi’s Inspiration
By Patrick Lane You miss your woman when she’s gone. You sleep on her side of the bed even when you say you won’t, imagine her cut under you like strange wool newly clipped. And fold away, fold away. There’s broken things around you you can’t fix. Blood in a boy’s head and a bullet…… Continue reading Breaking
… in a way poetry is stronger than death but it’s like love in that somebody two hundred years later could know you somehow through your words. – Medbh McGuckian An amazing line.
The slippery and elusive Untouchable and invisible Thing. It’s like finding a needle in a haystack or Bringing peace to earth for eternity. * Have you ever held a little kitten? Your arms wrapped around it, held ever so tightly Then the kitten wiggles away and escapes Just as you think you have it wrapped…… Continue reading T***t
Who am I? What am I? Where am I going? Tough questions to ponder. * To find the answers You better not ask For action and not thinking Defines you.
Jealousy’s a form of love, though self-love; not love for you and I or others. Inferiority is what lights its fire. Low self-esteem keeps it fueled. Anger and hatred are its residue. © Craig Considine
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