THE SOUL LIKE THE MOON

The soul, like the moon,
is new, and always new again.

And I have seen the ocean
continuously creating.

Since I scoured my mind
and my body, I too, Lalla,
am new, each moment new.

My teacher told me one thing.
Live in the soul.

When that was so,
I began to go naked,
and dance.

~ Lalla

The poem is from Naked Song (transl. by Coleman Barks). Lalla Ded (1320–1392) was a Kashmiri mystic. She wrote many devotional and mystic poems, expressing her longing for the Divine.