You Are My Breath

For many years I have wanted to write an English chant about how our breath brings us closer to the divine presence within. One day, I picked up Daniel Ladinsky’s book, “Love Poems From God” and opened to the poem “The Christ’s Breath” and in a state of inspiration wrote the lyrics for “You Are My Breath”.

As an aside, Daniel has been kind enough to allow me to quote his poems during my concerts and most recently, in the CD liner notes of “Beloved.” His beautiful line “Love once said to me “I know a song, would you like to hear it?”, which appears on the inside cover, is from the poem “Laughter Came From Every Brick” in this same volume.

The mantra, La’illaha il’Allah is a sacred phrase chanted by Sufis and Muslims all over the world. It means, “There is nothing other than You, O God. You alone are God!” My first experience singing this mantra was many years ago, when I was first introduced to the Dances of Universal Peace and Sufi Zikrs (meditation practices that incorporate movement and chanting). The Sufis teach that the repetition of this phrase alone will open the heart to the Divine Presence.

You are my breath
Breathe in me
You are my light
Reveal me
You are the sweetness in all things
Oh My Beloved

There is only one love and I see it in your face
Everywhere I go I am surrounded by grace
The moment I awake I am lost in the embrace of My Beloved

La'illaha il' Allah