Love at First Glance by Katie Davis

Ecstatic poetry recognizes that all love is One Love and that in falling in love with one another, we are expressing the Divine. Rumi, a thirteenth century ecstatic poet, describes The Glance as falling in love at first sight. He shares that The Glance is the mystical moment, when two spiritually connected individuals meet. The following selections reveal, in the meeting of eyes, not only the exquisite union of two loving souls, but also the Love that is the Heart of the Universe. Katie selected these excerpts from The Illuminated Rumin, translated by Coleman Barks and illustrated by Michael Green.

~ What is the Heart? It is not human and it is not imaginary. I call it You.

~ This is how I would die into the Love that I have for You…as pieces of cloud dissolve in sunlight.

~ Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrase “each other,” just doesn’t make sense any longer.

~ You and I have spoken all these words. But for the way we have to go, words are no preparation. There’s no getting ready, other than Grace. I have one drop of knowing in my soul. Let it dissolve in your ocean.

~ What was in that candle’s light that opened and consumed me so quickly? Come back, my Friend. The form of our Love is not a created form. Nothing can help me, but that Beauty. There was a dawn, I remember, when my soul heard something from your soul. I drank water from your spring and felt the current take me.

~ This night, there are no limits to what may be given. This is not a night, but a marriage. A couple whispering in bed in unison the same words. Darkness simply lets down a curtain for that.

~ I would love to kiss you…when soul rises into lips, you feel the kiss, you’ve always wanted.

~ In Love that long! I am Here, this moment, inside the Beauty, the gift God has given, our Love: this ring, this gold and circular sign, means we are free: out of eternity, I turn my face to you, and into eternity: we have been in Love that long.