“Drifter, on your feet, get moving!
You still have time, go look for the Friend.
Make yourself wings, take wing and fly.
You still have time, go look for the Friend.
Charge your bellows with breath
like the blacksmith taught you.
That’s how you turn your iron to gold.
You still have time, go look for the Friend…
I trapped my breath in the bellows of my throat:
a lamp blazed up inside, showed me who I really was.
I crossed the darkness holding fast to that lamp,
scattering its light-seeds around me as I went.
Wear the robe of wisdom,
brand Lalla’s words on your heart,
lose yourself in the soul’s light,
you too shall be free.”
Lalleshwari, aka Lal Ded, Kashmiri poet mystic (1320 – 1392)
Chorlton Unitarians 