The Light is the soul's food....by Rumi

Intelligence is the feast, not bread and roast meat:
the light of intelligence, my son, is the soul’s food.
Man has no food but the Light
the soul doesn’t obtain nourishment from anything but that.

Little by little cut yourself off from these material foods—
for they are the food of an ass, not that of a free man—
so that you might become capable
of absorbing that original food
and become accustomed to eating delicate morsels of Light.

It’s from the reflection of that Light
that this bread has become bread;
it’s from the overflowing of that rational soul
that this animal soul has become soul.

Once you eat of the Light
you won’t be attached to the bread and oven.

~ Rumi
( Mathnawi IV : 1954-1959 )
From The Rumi Daybook

I wait to be light.......by Rumi

When I see you and how you are,
I close my eyes to the other.

For your Solomon's seal 
I become wax
throughout my body. 

I wait to be light.
I give up opinions on all matters.
I become the reed flute for your breath.

You were inside my hand.
I kept reaching around for something.
I was inside your hand,
but I kept asking questions
of those who know very little.

I must have been incredibly simple or drunk or insane
to sneak into my own house and steal money,
to climb over my own fence and take my own vegetables.

But no more.
I have gotten free of that ignorant fist
that was pinching and twisting my secret self.

The universe and the light of the stars
come through me.

I am the crescent moon
put up over the gate
to the festival.

~ Rumi
A Year with Rumi
Daily Readings
By Coleman Barks