September 8, 2011: Sky presented Poetry of Rumi and the Wisdom of Mark Twain.

     We were again treated to the poems of Rumi in their lighthearted airy fullness versus various statements and wisdoms that a darker more cynical but nevertheless provocative Mark Twain provides to our culture. I would recommend anyone to pursue these two authors further. Sky presents these words with perfect timing and stimulates us to consider our culture through these two contrasting author's vision.

September 25, 2011: Rumi and Hafiz, presented by Karen and Sky.

     This session was a surprise and a treat. Our regular member, Sky and his guest Karen Kolberg, took turns to regale us with the Sufi poetry of Rumi (Sky with props) and the Hafiz poetry recited and acted out by Karen Kolberg. Sky is a comic with Rumi one-liners. He uses various hard props such as his bucket of "Industrial Strength Philosophy" or "Philosopher in a Drum"  to add to the humor and the depth of his presentation. Karen herself suffered a serious intracerebral bleed and lost all of her memorized Hafez poems except one. But she has relearned them all. She carries her "verse purse" with her which contains all the titles of Hafez poems in it. She asks someone in her audience to draw one out and she recites it with heart and vigor. The combination of these two presenters and the words of these two poets creates a performance at once deep and yet light and airy, like heaven.

Read on for information about who these two poets were and also view some photos of Rumi's Mausoleum in Konya, Turkey.