Come Back, My Friend Summary

"Come Back, My Friend" begins with a poem, talking about the many times the poet lost the connection with his loved one. He talks about the fragrance bringing him back, starting a cycle of broken promises. Though the poet tries to think and read to find his lover again, there is no help in it. Barks's commentary says that Rumi was asked why, since he valued silence, he wrote so much. He replied that no words came from the radiance inside him. Barks compares humans talking about God to fish talking about the sea. Barks asks the reader to try to be in the state of spirituality instead of reading about it, to live the connection about which Rumi talks.

In the following poem, the poet asks what caused a candle to open and consume him. He...