I may be clapping my hands,
but I do not belong to a crowd of clappers.
I am neither this nor that. I am not part of a group
that loves flute music, or one that loves gambling,
or one that loves drinking wine.

Those who live in time, descended from Adam,
made of earth and water, I am not part of that.

Do not listen to what I say as though these words
came from an inside and went to an outside.

Your faces are very beautiful, but they are wooden cages.
You had better run from me. My words are fire.

I have nothing to do with being famous,
or with making grand judgments or feeling shame.

I borrow nothing. I do not want anything
from anybody. I flow through all human beings.
Love is my only companion.

When union happens, my speech goes inward,
toward Shams. At that meeting
the secrets of language are no longer secret.

~ From Coleman Barks' A Year with Rumi