O, Peri Face

(after Rumi) You are with me, O Moon Thou peri-face, the gentle One, Drawing me to you, Drawing down to me To our secret place of ecstasies. Where you go, I go, You that are my eyes, my light Oh find me, drunk as I am; Embrace me and ease me Into the blissful realm of annihilation. NOTE A peri is a female jinn, related to dark powers but generally benevolent to humans. The "Peri face of God" encountered in Sufi poetry represents God as a beautiful young woman, the beloved of mystics, much as in the Jewish ecstatic mysticism of Abulfaraj, the Sabbath Bride (or Divine Shekhinah) comes down from a heavenly realm to become the lover of kabbalists.