Stories

NOBLE FAILURE #1 (January 2007)

(The first two pages are a from a poem by the 12th Century philosopher and poet Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi. The text was written in ink with a bamboo quill. It looks good as a big piece, but it’s tough to read at the smaller size.)

THE DIVER’S CLOTHES LYING EMPTY ON THE BEACH
by Rumi (Coleman Barks, trans.)
You’re sitting here with us, but you’re also
out walking in a field at dawn
You are yourself, the animal we hunt when you come with us on the hunt
You’re in your body like a plant is solid in the ground
Yet you’re the wind
You’re the diver’s clothes lying empty on the beach
You’re the fish
In the ocean are many bright strands and many dark strands
Like veins that are seen when a wing is lifted up
You’re hidden self is blood in those —
Those veins which are like lute strings which play ocean music
not the sad edge of surf, but the sound of no shore

Click on the 24-Hr Comics tab at the top of this page to examine all of my NOBLE FAILURES. The February and March editions are scanned for upload, and I’ll be doing April’s next weekend. More details, write-ups, and comics coming soon.