The poetry of Rumi has provided inspiration for many composers, and I have to admit I have been delighted to fall under its spell, thanks to the compelling translations of Coleman Barks. The poems are not only musical in their language and flow, but have music in them, as the following couplet demonstrates:
We have fallen into the place
where everything is music
One of his recurring messages is that of staying in the immediate moment, and finding jeweled meaning in what we have at each breath of our existence. To me, this also reflects the experience of music: we can't stop music's time, but we can intensely experience each moment, each phrase, each individual piece, each composer's work. These pieces unfold as a parallel stream to the words, where I've tried to reflect the flow and capture the movement of each poem.