Poetry Chaikhana
Sacred Poetry from Around the World

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Pain and Wounding

Many mystics experience a sense of pain or wounding as part of their union with the Divine, a sacred pain. For some, this can be physical and obvious to observers. This is perhaps most startlingly manifest in the great Catholic stigmatists, like St. Francis of Assisi.

Other mystics speak of a wounding in a more metaphorical sense. The pain experienced is the perception of one's separation from God. But that pain itself is the doorway to reunion. By allowing oneself to become completely vulnerable to that pain, to surrender to it, the mystic finds the pain transformed into the blissful touch of the Beloved.

Your most secret wound
is the doorway.

It is the pain of the pierced ego. For one with inner balance, where the protective but limiting shell of the ego is no longer necessary, that pain points the way to freedom.

For this reason, mystics and saints describe the pain as being "sweet" or joyful or beautiful.

Poems with the theme of Pain and Wounding

	Abil-Kheir, Abu-Said [61] My Beloved, this torture and pain
	Abil-Kheir, Abu-Said [316] If you do not give up the crowds
	Angelou, Maya Alone
	Angelou, Maya Million Man March Poem
	Angelou, Maya Still I Rise
	Arnaut Daniel The firm desire that enters
	Attar, Farid ud-Din Look -- I do nothing; He performs all deeds
	Aurobindo, Sri The Guest
	Berry, Wendell Sabbaths 1998, VI
	Berry, Wendell Testament
	Blake, William Auguries of Innocence
	Brabazon, Francis Dawn is a Friend
	Ching-Yuen, Loy To know Tao
	Civivakkiyar The slothful
	Crashaw, Richard The Flaming Heart or the Life of the Glorious S. Teresa
	Crashaw, Richard To the Name above every Name, the Name of Jesus
	Dickinson, Emily [772] The hallowing of Pain
	Farid, Baba Sheikh I thought I was alone who suffered
	Farid, Baba Sheikh Raga Asa
	Francis of Assisi Prayer Inspired by the Our Father
	Ghalib, Mirza The drop dies in the river
	Granger, Ivan M. Empty Dawn
	Granger, Ivan M. Fidelity
	Granger, Ivan M. Medusa
	Granger, Ivan M. Adi Atman 3: 2 AM
	Hadewijch Love Has Seven Names
	Hafiz If life remains, I shall go back to the tavern
	Hafiz (Ladinsky, Daniel) How Could a Lover Fall?
	Hanh, Thich Nhat Contemplation
	Hanh, Thich Nhat Please Call Me by My True Names
	Ibn 'Arabi, Muhyiddin If what she says is true
	Islam, Nazrul Come silently like the Moon
	Jacopone da Todi (Benedetti, Jacopone) How the Soul Through the Senses Finds God in All Creatures
	Jacopone da Todi (Benedetti, Jacopone) In losing all, the soul has risen (from Self-Annihilation and Charity Lead the Soul...)
	Jayadeva Raga Gujri
	Jayadeva When spring came, tender-limbed Radha wandered (from The Gitagovinda)
	John of the Cross I Live Yet Do Not Live in Me
	John of the Cross Love's Living Flame
	John of the Cross Without a Place and With a Place
	Kabir The Lord is in Me
	Kabir [XVII] The light of the sun, the moon, and the stars shines bright:
	Kalidas (Edwards, Lawrence) Take Refuge in Silence
	Kerouac, Jack The Scripture of the Golden Eternity
	Ko Un Arrows
	Llull, Ramon January (from The Book of the Lover and Beloved)
	Mahadevi, Akka What do the barren know
	Maharshi, Ramana The Necklet of Nine Gems
	Maharshi, Ramana The Song of the Poppadum
	Maier, Michael Three Golden Apples from the Hesperian grove (from Atalanta Fugiens)
	McCombs, Chris Your Pilot
	Mechthild of Magdeburg Of the voices of the Godhead
	Meher Baba How Wonderful is the murderous mercy of God!
	Meher Baba The Beloved's Face
	Merton, Thomas A Messenger from the Horizon
	Merton, Thomas Stranger
	Merton, Thomas The Sowing of Meanings
	Milarepa Upon this earth, the land of the Victorious Ones
	Milosz, Czeslaw Forget
	Mirabai I am pale with longing for my beloved;
	Mirabai No one knows my invisible life
	Mirabai The Dagger
	Mistral, Gabriela The Rose
	Nasimi, Imadeddin I take the Merciful One's shape, the Merciful I am
	Nematollah Vali, Shah The Sea Is Our Essence
	Neruda, Pablo Gautama Christ
	Neruda, Pablo The Poet's Obligation
	Nirmala A lasting marriage
	Novalis Over I journey
	Nurbakhsh, Javad The Pain of Love
	O'Donohue, John On the death of the Beloved
	Oliver, Mary Have You Ever Tried to Enter the Long Black Branches?
	Rahman Baba Sow Flowers
	Ramprasad (Sen, Ramprasad) O Mother, who really
	Ramprasad (Sen, Ramprasad) Who is that Syama woman
	Ravidas Upon seeing poverty
	Rosenstock, Gabriel Baghdad
	Rosenstock, Gabriel why was the veil rent (from Uttering Her Name)
	Rumi, Mevlana Jelaluddin If a blow comes to you from Heaven
	Rumi, Mevlana Jelaluddin Secret Language
	Rumi, Mevlana Jelaluddin Seizing my life in your hands, you thrashed me clean
	Rumi, Mevlana Jelaluddin We are the mirror as well as the face in it
	Sanai, Hakim The Way of the Holy Ones
	Saraha The Royal Song of Saraha (Dohakosa)
	Sarmad The universe
	Shabistari, Mahmud The Tavern Haunters
	Tagore, Rabindranath (84) It is the pang of separation that spreads throughout the world (from Gitanjali)
	Teresa of Avila In the Hands of God
	Teresa of Avila Oh Exceeding Beauty
	Therese of Lisieux My Song for Today
	Thompson, Francis The Hound of Heaven
	Tilopa Song of the Mahamudra (Tilopa's Song to Naropa)
	Trungpa, Chogyam A flower is always happy
	Trungpa, Chogyam Expose
	Tsogyel, Yeshe This self-sufficient black lady has shaken things up
	Tukaram All men to me are god-like Gods!
	Tulsidas The Rainy Season
	Valad, Sultan The Soul That Does not Live in God is not Alive
	Vivekananda, Swami Song of the Sanyasin
	Walters, Dorothy Taken

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Poetry Chaikhana Sacred Poetry from Around the World

Pain and Wounding

Poetry Chaikhana
Sacred Poetry from Around the World