My Soul Has Taken Me to Task

By Kahlil Gibran from The Prophet

My soul has taken me to task
and taught me to love
what others reject 
and to treat 
as a friend 
the one 
whom they insult. 
And it has revealed to me 
that the power of love 
is not within the lover 
but in the beloved 
And before my soul 
took me to task, 
love within me 
was a slender thread 
stretched between two stakes 
placed close together. 
But now 
it has been transformed 
into a halo 
whose beginning and end 
are one, 
encircling all that exists, 
extending slowly 
to embrace 
everything 
that will ever exist 
My Soul has taken me to task 
and taught me 
to see 
beauty beyond shape, 
colour and skin, 
and to contemplate 
things that people 
call hideous 
until they appear 
pleasing to me 
And before my Soul 
took me to task, 
I saw beauty 
in flames flickering 
inside columns of smoke. 
But today 
the smoke has dispersed 
and now 
I see only the fire 
My Soul has taken me to task 
and taught me to 
listen 
to voices 
that come neither 
from tongues 
nor from throats 
And before my Soul 
took me to task 
I was hard of hearing; 
I heard only 
tumult and uproar 
But now 
I am all ears. 
listening to the silence 
and its choirs 
singing the hymns 
of time, 
intoning the praises 
of the firmament, 
revealing the secrets 
of the invisible. 
My Soul has taken me to task 
and taught me 
not to measure time 
by the yardstick 
of yesterday 
or tomorrow 
And before my Soul took me to task 
I believed that the past 
was a time 
to which I could not return 
and the future 
a time I could not reach. 
But today I know 
that the present moment 
embraces the whole of time, 
along with all it contains 
of aspirations, 
actions 
and achievements. 
My Soul has taken me to task 
and has taught me 
that the lantern 
I carry 
does not belong to me 
and that the song 
I sing 
does not come 
from my heart. 
So although I walk 
in the light 
I am not 
the Light, 
and although 
I am a well tuned lute 
I am not 
the Lute Player 
My Soul has taken me to task 
my brother/sister 
and it has taught 
me much 
and your Soul 
has lectured you 
and taught you 
just as much

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