Oh, Yahia!  What an excellent choice, and how refreshing to hear your voice enlivening it!  I am inspired to record again.

Gratitude

I am too alone by Rainer Maria Rilke
translated by Robert Bly 

I am too alone in the world, and not alone enough 
to make every minute holy.
I am too tiny in this world, and not tiny enough 
just to lie before you like a thing,
shrewd and secretive.
I want my own will, and I want simply to be with my will, 
as it goes toward action, 
and in the silent, sometimes hardly moving times 
when something is coming near,
I want to be with those who know secret things 
or else alone.
I want to be a mirror for your whole body,
and I never want to be blind, or to be too old
to hold up your old and swaying picture.
I want to unfold.
I don’t want to stay folded anywhere, 
because where I am folded, there I am a lie.
And I want my grasp of things 
true before you.  I want to describe myself 
like a painting that I looked at
closely for a long time,
like a saying that I finally understood,
like the pitcher I use every day, like the face of my mother,
like a ship that took me safely
through the wildest storm of all.


A peek at Lababidi's inner life:  http://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/blog/books-we-were#.VYLleflViko 

I Am Too Alone In The World, And Not Alone Enough by Rilke - read by Lababidi

The Guest House 


This being human is a guest house. 
Every morning a new arrival. 

A joy, a depression, a meanness, 
some momentary awareness comes 
as an unexpected visitor. 

Welcome and entertain them all! 
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows, 
who violently sweep your house 
empty of its furniture, 
still, treat each guest honorably. 
He may be clearing you out 
for some new delight. 

The dark thought, the shame, the malice, 
meet them at the door laughing, 
and invite them in. 

Be grateful for whoever comes, 
because each has been sent 
as a guide from beyond.
 

- The Essential Rumi, version by Coleman Barks

[Yahia Lababidi is an Egyptian poet; his latest book is: "The Artist as Mystic" a collaboration on a series of conversations, exploring the ecstatic dimension in literature: http://amzn.com/e/B0042SRQWG ]

The Guest House, by Rumi - Read by Yahia Lababidi

Lost and Found by Gary Zmolek read by Gary Zmolek

Spanish Dancer by Rainer Maria Rilke, read by Peter Danbury

The Silken Tent by Robert Frost read by Gary Zmolek

Aubade in Autumn by Peter Everwine, read by Sondra Morin

Today like every other day by Rumi tr. Coleman Barks  read by Mark Johnson

The Art of Storm-Riding by Yahia Lababidi read by Gary Zmolek

Desert Places by Robert Frost read by Gary Zmolek

Egyptian-American author of 11 critically-acclaimed books.  Lababidi's latest are: "Quarantine Notes" short meditations composed during our global pandemic & "Learning to Pray" a collection of his spiritual poems & aphorisms.

Amazon Author Page:  https://www.amazon.com/author/yahialababidi

I Am Too Alone In The World, And Not Alone Enough by Rilke - read by Lababidi

Yahia Lababidi

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