Acknowledgements

Editor

Nihat Tsolak

I was born in Greece, Thrace in a small farming village called Amaranda in 1965. I lived with my parents for 19 years working in my father’s farm, and going to school in the village and secondary school in the nearest town of Komotini. I left home after national service, and I lived in Rhodes for about four years, where I finished high school, Venetoklio Lyceé of Rhodes in 1991. I then moved to Scotland where I graduated with an MA in Sociology in 96, following this I did an MPhil in Psychology. In 97 I moved to England and lived in Guildford for a year, where I spent time working and doing a part time course at Surrey university. I then moved to London to do a course in IT. Currently I work in a credit card company, supporting credit card networks.

In 1994 during my university years, I set up a personal website, with ages about ‘Thrace’ my home community in Greece, and Rumi, with collections of poems from some of my favourite poets. I would like to share this website with you, please email with your contributions, or any other assistance would be most welcome. This website would have not existed without your support and encouragement. I would like to thank you for visiting and sharing Rumi’s poetry.

In my spare time I work on organising events, for the latest events please see the Events page. If you would like to receive updates on Rumi events you can subscribe to Rumi Events mailing list.

Contributors

Sipko den Boer

Sipko den Boer, born in Holland, is a translator of Rumi’s poetry and teachings. He is a student and representative of Threshold Society, a school for Sufi studies founded by Mevlevi Sheikh Kabir Helminski. Among his translations of his Sufi teacher are Jewels of Remembrance, Daylight, A Daybook of Spiritual Guidance, and The Knowing Heart, The Sufi Path of Transformation. Other works he has translated are Tales from the Masnavi by A.J. Arberry and Words from Paradise, a collection of lyric poems illustrated with Persian and Islamic Manuscripts. Sipko is also working on a direct translation of Rumi’s work from the Persian into Dutch, soon to be published as Love Is The Path: Quatrains from Rumi. Besides his deep love of mystical poetry, Sipko shares a passion for music with his wife Saki.

Articles at Rumi in Dutch
Email: Please use the contact page[/vc_toggle][vc_toggle title=”Revd Frank Julian Gelli” el_id=”1555137710652-891a6610-9751″]Father Frank Gelli was born in Rome. He worked there as a freelance journalist and playwright. In 1973 he came to England as a correspondent of the drama magazine Sipario. After achieving degrees in philosophy, theology and education from London and Oxford Universities, in 1986 he was ordained as an Anglican priest. From 1989 to 1991 he was chaplain of the church of St Nicholas, Ankara, Turkey.

Curate of Kensington until 1999, he has since devoted his energies to the twin tasks of writing full-time and commitment to inter-religious dialogue. He is founder and coordinator of the Arkadash Network, a spiritual fellowship devoted to Muslim-Christian friendship and reconciliation. His interests range over literature, poetry, painting, arts, spirituality and, especially, mysticism. He has just finished writing a book on the Prophet Muhammad and is currently working on another book on Jesus.

Articles at Reflections on Rumi
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John Lloyd

I am a 38 year old father of three children living in Ottawa, Canada. I am a baker of breads, cakes, cookies and muffins, a musician (guitar, mandolin) and an advocate for children with special needs. The words of Rumi are divine inspiration. They act a both as muse to my own creativity and the calming influence on my soul’s growth.

God’s Wine composed and sung by John Lloyd; lyrics to God’s Wine.

Poems of John at Reflections on Rumi
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Majid Mohiuddin

Majid Mohiuddin, grew up in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, a suburb of Philadelphia. By accident, he discovered creative writing in high school and won the NJ Governor’s Award for Literary Arts in 1993 for playwrighting. During his undergrad at Brown University in Providence, RI, he continued writing as a Rose Writing Fellow, and began to study Islamic art/architecture and literature as a side interest.

His most recent project is a collection of Islamic ghazals (in English), called “An Audience of One.” Majid is a recent graduate of Brown University Medical School, and he is in residency in Radiation Oncology at Harvard.

Poems of Majid at Reflections on Rumi

Gerald Rhoades

Gerald Rhoades, born 1948, is a student of the world’s religions with a special interest in the mystic poets. He has lived three years in a monastery and practices meditation and spiritual discipline on a daily basis. One of his central beliefs is the experience of God is not something that can be comprehended or captured literally, religious writing is mostly metaphor, thus the closest expression of God’s nature is found in the writings of the mystic poets. He is currently living in Los Angeles, California and works as an artist and writer.

Poems of Gery Rhoades at Reflections on Rumi
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Richard

My name is Richard. I’m 31 years old. I spent 18 of those years as an active alcoholic and a drug addict. To the point where I ended up homeless, jobless and much more spiritually bankrupt. At the age of 28 I stopped using drugs and started living ,actually I started noticing, my spiritual path. Rumi was introduced to me through a beautiful girl, I thought I was looking to her for an intimate relationship, and what I got was the best one with God and myself I ever had.

Poems of Richard at Reflections on Rumi
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Gustavo Adrián Salvini

Gustavo Adrián Salvini was born in Lomas de Zamora, Argentina, December 18th, 1976. He is a student of Electronics Engineering in the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and also studies English and Italian. He likes poetry so much, and knew Rumi by the reading of a book from Erich Fromm.

Gustavo grew up and lives today in Turdera, a small city near Buenos Aires. He’s an enthusiast of tourism in Patagonia, and loves trekking.

Contributions at Rumi in Spanish
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ELM Schindler

On March 11th 1960 in Toledo Ohio my life began. Raised Catholic and attending Catholic schools. My father an oil painter and my interest in art followed his footsteps. Not being the artist I wanted to be, I took up writing. I learned how to express myself, placing words on paper, instead of using paint on a canvas.

My 42 years of life have been a battle. In my teen years I had a hard time adjusting to reality and became rebellious. It led me to a life of self-destruction and hard times. I went through a journey of bad marriages, and tragic experiences. After a miscarriage, a car wreck and a divorce, I had a nervous breakdown. During this period I stopped writing and destroyed my journals. Then a devastating event took place and left me plagued with an anxiety and panic disorder.

Now in Texas, in 1996 I bought a place in the country and left my past behind me and started over. Still unhappy I kept trying new things but nothing brought me peace of mind. But in the summer of 1999 my brother talked me into getting a computer. I began writing once more, leading me to a place of serenity. I have changed my name to ELM Schindler after my deceased uncle, to protect the anonymity of my parents. I write from my heart, I hold nothing back when I write. At times I can be graphic, but to me, this is my art. I want others to feel my pain, pleasure and love I use this name so I can have the freedom to write as I desire. I have been published and have received many poetry awards. I have been taking writing lessons from Mark Weston who teaches writing at the Screen Actors Guild in New York City. He has convinced me I now am a real writer, placing before me new challenges. After writing several short stories, with his blessings I am now working on a couple of novels. I wish all great success with their writing.

Poems at Reflections on Rumi

Xajbek Sulujhaq

I was born in central Anatolia where Mevlana lived and left so much. My parents rised me up with ashk and sufism. I learned a lot from both my parents and other divine lovers who gather for ashk. My poor path has been crossed into the one of Pir Fakirullah Levend for ten years. Since then, my presence have been enlightened with ashk one more time. Since then, I have been traveling in the way of ashk.

I generate poems in the very same style of Yunus Emre, Pir Sultan Abdal, Kazak Abdal and many others. Additionally I paint in a traditional technique called ebru and miniature. In each work, I try my best to tell something about ashk.

Poems of Xajbek at Reflections on Rumi
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Eliza Tasbihi

Eliza Tasbihi was born in 1965, in Iran. She lived most of her life in Tabriz, where she met a spiritual teacher through whom she was introduced to the poetry of Jalaluddin Rumi, and of Sheikh Mahmud Shabistari, two legends of classical Sufi literature. She spent five years studying Persian classic poetry, and Arabic and Ottoman languages, while trying to capture the spiritual essence of Sufi poetry.

More recently, she has been studying Rumi’s poetry through correspondence with scholars, as well work with spiritual teachers. Her interests are primarily focused on the teachings and poetry of: Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi, Hussein ibn Mansour al-Hallaj, Muhyaddin Ibn al-Arabi, Yunus Emre, and Ein al-Quzat-e Hamadani.

She is affiliated with a Sufi order, and is working toward a Master’s Degree in Urban Planning, at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Contributions of Eliza Tasbihi are at Persian with Rumi
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Ruth Terrones

Ruth was born in Lima, Perú, in 1979. She is a student of Translation and Interpretation in The Sacred Heart University (UNIFE) and a supportive member of RAWA. She was brought up in a catholic family, in a world where almost nothing about Sufism or Rumi is known. However, Sufism and especially Rumi was introduced to her through a Dervish she met during her journey to London. Rumi’s life and poetry has given her a new vision of Love and Spirituality. Besides, her special love for Afghanistan has encouraged her to study its culture, history and the Persian language.

Contributions of Ruth are at Rumi in Spanish
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Paula Timpson

Paula Timpson, 35 yr old Poetess in East Hampton ,LI. Interested in Yoga , meditation, nature , animals… published yet finds deep fulfillment in poetry ministry.

Poems of Paula Timpson at Reflections on Rumi
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Duane Tucker

After working in Hollywood for years as an actor and writer, appearing
in over 65 films and TV shows, Duane married a Canadian and settled in
Ontario, where he’s traveling and performing a one-man show on John
Muir’s battle to preserve Yosemite.

His poetry has been published in over a hundred journals, among them:
Blue Unicorn, California State Poetry Quarterly, Spillway, Luminous
Wildflowers (an anthology of California poets), New Thought Journal,
Chrysalis.

Passanger Magazine (U. of Baltimore) voted him poet of the year 2002.

Poems of Duane Tucker at Reflections on Rumi

Siv Kristin Furaas Wist

I was born 15 of December 1967 in the Northern part of Norway, in a small comunity called Gratangen. As long as I can remember I have been a seeker at heart, pondering exitence. I always had a big WHY in my head…and I still do, only today it is with great comfidence of Why Is… I grew up with 5 brothers, and as the youngest and only girl, I had a “tuff” time…no, just kidding, I can look back on years with much laughter and fun, and my parents were two uniqe soles, with lots to give to us children. And my grandparents were also two loving soles.

As I turned 18, my seeking personality urged me to try my own wings, and I had two older brothers that had moved to the Western part of Norway, a town called Bryne.
I have always loved writing, so I wrote letters once a day to my parents and grandparens back home, telling them all about my new experinces…

Today I am married, have three wonderfull boys, and my seeker personality is as strong as ever..I have stubled over so many wonderfull books, met so many wonderfull soles…and yesterday I found this amazing web site of Rumi. Does life work in mysteriouse ways, guess so. I feel these poems speaks directly to my sole, as they have been waiting for me all this while. As if I were to divelop my own style of writing, before I was shown that its right… The poems of Rumi makes me want to laugh and cry, give thanks and pray, because of all the love and passon they hold…

Poems of Siv at Reflections on Rumi
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Gary C. Wilkens

I was born in Charleston, SC, in 1976 and raised in North Carolina and Arkansas.I spent my entire adolescence in foster care, and put myself through Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas on pure intellect and sheer meanness. While there I discovered Persian Sufi literature and mysticism and entheogens, developing my own verse through the poetry underground, getting a B.A. with Distinction in Philosophy on the side. Much effort at getting myself into a creative writing program followed, but it turns out to be easier for a
rich man to get into heaven.I finally wised up in 2001 and moved to Germany, where I
married and am attempting to become a professional poet. I trace my silsila back to Alfred North Whitehead through Dr.Jay McDaniel, and my initiatory shaiyk was the Maulana, through his poems.Poetry is my dhikr, and I wish my work to be the continuance of Rumi’s living poetic tradition.

Poems of Gary at Reflections on Rumi
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