The Gift

The Gift – Hafiz

 This is another atypical book, so it also will not receive my typical book review. ”The Gift” by Hafiz is a collection of poems that have endured several centuries and been translated into numerous languages throughout that time. Most poems in the book are not explicitly religious, but all of them have some degree of spiritual undertone. Through clever metaphors and hilarious tangents, Hafiz accurately and often painfully captures the fundamental contradictions of being human and trying to make meaning out of life. I cannot make it clear enough how much I love this book. I love this book so much that I can’t hold onto it. I regularly give away my copy because it is so urgent to me that someone else read it RIGHT NOW. Since I first read this book, I think I have purchased 5 copies for myself that have ended up in other hands, and 3 more intentionally as gifts for someone else. I finally gave in a bought a copy of it on my kindle, but even that wasn’t good enough, so I went and bought another paperback copy and I already have plans for who will receive this one. READ IT. If you don’t, then it is entirely reasonable that you should expect to receive my own dog-eared copy one day.