the worm's waking

The Worm's Waking

This is how a human being can change:

there's a worm addicted to eating

grape leaves.

Suddenly, he wakes up,

call it grace, whatever, something

wakes him, and he's no longer a worm.

He's the entire vineyard,

and the orchard too, the fruit, the trunks,

a growing wisdom and joy

that doesn't need

to devour.

-- by Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks, from The Essential Rumi