Ramadan Sonnets / Poems

by Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore

RAMADAN SONNETS, not always a spiritual meditation, nor often even what should be felt and achieved in the fast (the poems are striving for some reality of feeling and experience), these poems are an imaginatively inspired record of the month, its small epiphanies and grim endurances, heading out from its physical constraints to contemplate a vast panorama, or focusing in on particulars, those embryos of explosive meaning, to evoke the blessed month of Ramadan's intertwining flavors of asceticism and sensual gratitude, its palatable and palpable Light.

Genres: Poetry

162 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Born in 1940 in Oakland, California, Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore’s first book of poems, Dawn Visions, was published by Lawrence Ferlinghetti of City Lights Books, San Francisco, in 1964, and the second in 1972, Burnt Heart/Ode to the War Dead. He created and directed The Floating Lotus Magic Opera Company in Berkeley, California in the late 60s, and presented two major productions, The Walls Are Running Blood, and Bliss Apocalypse. He became a Sufi Muslim in 1970, performed the Hajj in 1972, and lived and traveled throughout Morocco, Spain, Algeria and Nigeria, landing in California and publishing The Desert is the Only Way Out, and Chronicles of Akhira in the early 80s (Zilzal Press). Residing in Philadelphia since 1990, in 1996 he published The Ramadan Sonnets (Jusoor/City Lights), and in 2002, The Blind Beekeeper (Jusoor/Syracuse University Press). He has been the major editor for a number of works, including The Burdah of Shaykh Busiri, translated by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, and the poetry of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, translated by Munir Akash. He is also widely published on the worldwide web: The American Muslim, DeenPort, and his own website, among others: http://www.danielmoorepoetry.com. The Ecstatic Exchange Series is bringing out the extensive body of his works of poetry, beginning in 2005 with Mars & Beyond, Laughing Buddha Weeping Sufi, Salt Prayers and a revised edition of Ramadan Sonnets, and continuing in 2006 beginning with Psalms for the Brokenhearted, I Imagine a Lion, Coattails of the Saint, Love is a Letter Burning in a High Wind, and The Flame of Transformation Turns to Light. Abdallah Jones and the Disappearing-Dust Caper is the tenth in the series, and the first for young adults in the Ecstatic Exchange / Crescent Series.

Reviews

[Edita · Rating 5 out of 5]

… and if we can
fasten our hearts only to Him, and at the
very least let eating and
drinking go for His sake, and it is like
a love affair so intense we
forget ourselves almost completely except for a
general discomfort, so that really what the
revelation of Islam is all about is the
physics of a love-affair of the
intensest kind outwardly which if we
fulfill as completely as possible we might taste the
almost unbearable sweetness
inwardly as well and so be
thoroughly consumed.

[Tegan Faust · Rating 2 out of 5]

A collection of bonnets about Muslim fasting tradition called ramadan by a Muslim. I will admit that when I bought it it was because of the cover and that it was a book of poems not thinking much of what it was about.


First one talks about how some people love and thrive during the fasting while others feel like it is more like a prequel to death. It also mentions the rules, fast when sun is up and exception for it such as illness or pregnancy.


Yhe first section of poems seems to follow a struggle of getting used to the routine of fasting and the struggle of not eating during the day and the emotions he felt at the start. 


The next section as poems that show he finds it easier during ramadan, maybe starting to enjoy it. But the one with moses and the saint seems like an oddball out.


Now getting into God's roke in the tradition. Connections. Various experiences through the years during ramadan. 


I think I understand the tradition/holiday better after reading this. Not sure i would reread this one though

[Hamaad · Rating 4 out of 5]

"In our self
lies our freedom from self!

No warped body is so
wrenched as to be not a
clear focus for the Light of God. But

patience is the key. And Ramadan is all about
bodily patience. Particularly
near the end, when a part of us just wants the whole thing to be over.

Shaykh Junaid said: "Patience is being patient with patience.""

Gravity pulls us down-for good reason!

We couldn't live on the moon without a spacesuit!"