Now, you can listen to Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore's poems from his own voice. Moore has been writing poetry since 1964. Although he stopped writing for ten years after becoming a Muslim in 1970 he resumed writing poetry in 1980 and has published many books since.
Tiny Spider on a Leaf
The tiny spider on a leaf
knows you as he finds relief
from patient hunger winding spry
spider-silk around a fly.
The whale in all his deepsea booms
knows you as he moves through rooms
of sparkling coral lost in song
to a mile wide radius whale throng.
Worms in soil among the rocks
know you in their slimy clocks
of special worm metabolism
in cold earth's wintry hypnotism.
The eagle with his cloud-white plumage
knows you in his swoop and image
eagle-eyed of rabbit, crouched
in snow awaiting to be touched.
The dragonfly with nervous flutter
knows you as he sees the stutter
of his green reflection pass
across a pool's cool mirror mass.
The bear in polar ice cap winter
knows you curled in cave interior
as the season passes slow
around his sleep thirty below.
Seasons know you in their thaw
and flower, going suddenly raw
and fresh with green flesh ripe and new
and juicy in the morning dew.
The mite, the mote, mosquito, mole
all know you in their special hole
Allah has given every creature
to be its home and function teacher.
Drift in space of spray or light
know you by your face, ignite
the actions that so fill each speck
as matter sinks like a deepsea wreck.
Earth in all its daily rounds
knows you in its deepest sounds
of rising, falling, heaving, roll.
The earth's an ocean, sky its pole!
So every atom, lit, alone,
knows you from its nucleic throne
in isolation or in chorus
with all the atoms created for us
in every leaf or web or knot
or ripple of the stillest thought
across the pond of mind or pool
that stretches out its liquid jewel
like a net or radar cup to catch
the furthest spatial influence, thatch
of sound-waves crisscrossed with the flow
of particles in one long river glow
to make one glorious cry
to you, their Light, your gentle eye,
Muhammad, your presence in actual space
that put all meaning in its place,
for you preceded everything
that has dimension, casts a ring
of light or shadow around its head
of glass, or flesh, of vapor, lead
or creature, you were first, your dot
of light the one that flows in thought
to unite the streams of earth and sky
into one horizon in the heart's wide eye.
Muhammad, Messenger, your self-form
the pattern of all the living swarm
from thin to fat, from small to vast,
of all that flows between first and last
because Allah alone is First
and only Allah is Last, the thirst
for knowing Him must stop at that.
You are the City of Light's habitat!
Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore is a Muslim poet who has published many poetry books and organized poetry reading festivals. Born in 1940 in Oakland, California his first book of poems was published in 1964. He became a Muslim in 1970 and travelled extensively around Europe and North Africa. Although he stopped writing for ten years he continues writing Islamic and spiritual poetry.
