Tired of Speaking Sweetly

This is the title of a poem/prayer I heard recently. I hope you'll enjoy this alternate picture of God.


Love wants to reach out and manhandle us,
Break all our teacup talk of God.


If you had courage and
Could give the Beloved His choice, some nights,
He would just drag you around the room
By your hair,
Ripping from your grip all those toys in the world
That bring you no joy.


Love sometimes gets tired of speaking sweetly
And wants to rip to shreds
All your erroneous notions of truth


That make you fight within yourself, dear one,
And with others,
Causing the world to weep
On too many fine days.


God wants to manhandle us,
Lock us inside of a tiny room with Himself
And practice His dropkick.


The Beloved sometimes wants
To do us a great favor:


Hold us upside down
And shake all the nonsense out.


But when we hear
He is in such a "playful drunken mood"


Most everyone I know
Quickly packs their bags and hightails it
Out of town.

-Hafiz, "Tired of Speaking Sweetly"
Translated by Daniel Ladinsky


My favorite part is this idea that God needs to practice His divine dropkick on us! I hope this short poem helps slightly to expand your tightly held perhaps narrow picture of God, just as it did mine.