The Dervish Enneagram, by Tom Skove

Dance of the Sufi Dervishes, by Kamal ud-Din Behzad (Afghanistan) 1450-1535

The Dervish Enneagram

Number Pattern:  9 1432 8657

The ninth man moved his bed
from the top to the circle’s bottom 
where, clad in silk and cotton,
he rests with hands behind his head. 

The first to sing in sky blue,
the man in peach the two,
the gray three, hand to brow.
To his left, the gray four assists two

pairs of two that have slumbered.
Across from them, the man between
is five (like the players below three,
the gold one above has no number).

The circle ends with three more:
the orange number six,
the green seventh, then the eight.
They sing in a special order:

the first man’s note goes clockwise
to the fourth, on his left,
what we call an “A,” then rests
upon the fourth man’s eyes, 

who with an understitch,  
turns the line of his sung “B”
back up, counter-clockwise, 
over number three, to catch

what the second weaves
with the two to make a melody
as he sings the “C,”
which, rising, leaves

to cross to eight, a trajectory  
that curves along the sphere
when the outer circle clears
life’s fused force free 

within the infinitude of time,
the mirror of the one that feels
what man is and what he needs.
the bridge the second’s mind

makes with what the eighth sees.
Head down, he sings his song in
to the fifth man under him,
the “D” in the harmony,

- overstitching six- the vine’s root,
the foundation of the joyous chord,
the branch pruned by the Lord
that bears the living fruit,

what we give to one another;
to those who realize his demand
that they follow his command
to love each other.  

The fifth man’s note,
the “E,” spirals with a scent
that permeates the inner senses:
the joy of the seventh the hope

of all mankind:  he knows the pleasure
of the melody’s fulfillment
in the light of love’s harmony,
and draws it in full measure

through the centre of the round,
to the one, while in the inner ring,
a hand raised, twirling
slowly, waiting for a sound

to rise from heart to mind.
loose silk scarves floating 
from their gleaming coats,
four men spin within the nine

the excitement of their being, 
the dance in earnest:
forward and up, now rest,
now straight, now leaning, 

the musicians with horn,
drum, and flute, the ground
on which they dance on 
tremulous, quivering, born

in sobriety, what the need
of song for man drums
on as the men turn from 
positions nine, six and three

to form a triangle of light:
each affirming,
each denying,
and with each other, reconciling.

Tom Skove

Tom Skove is a retired environmental lawyer from Cleveland, Ohio, who has been writing and at times publishing poetry most of his life.