We saw the previews for the new Narnia movie yesterday at the theater. I've always loved Aslan. (Heck, I'm beginning to love that old chicken eating bobcat.) But I love more this startling poem by Hafiz. At this point in my life, the Sufi poet's Great Lion, rings so much more true to me than C.S. Lewis' Aslan.

The Barrroom View of Love

I would not want all my words
To parade around this world
In pretty costumes,

So I will tell you something
Of the Barroom view of Love.

Love is grabbing hold of the Great Lion's mane
And wrestling and rolling deep into Existence

While the Beloved gets rough
And begins to maul you alive.

True Love, my dear,
Is putting an ironclad grip upon

The soft, swollen balls
Of a Divine Rogue Elephant

And
Not having the good fortune to Die!

--Hafiz