When you go to buy a pomegranate,
pick the one that's laughing,
that has its rind cleft,
so that through its broken-open-ness
you get some information about the seeds.

Listen for the laughter that shows the inside,
that cracks the casket-shell and lets you see the pearl.
There's another kind, an unhappy laughing
like the red anemone's that shows its inner blackness.

But pomegranate-laughter is blessed,
like the companionship of good people.
Even if you're a common rock, when you join them,
you'll become a precious stone.

Keep the love of holy laughing in you.
Don't visit sad neighborhoods.
Let laughter lead you to the right people.
Your body-wantings will take you out of the sunlight
into dark and dank places.

Feed on the conversation of a lover.
Look for spiritual growth from one
who is farther along than you.

Rumi

Coleman Barks' translation. in "Feeling the Shoulder of the Lion"


Art work: Edward J. Detmold (1883-1957)