The Rumi Prescription

I ve been blessed with an intense appreciation for mu­sic and cursed with a staggering lack of talent for it. Years of violin and piano lessons proved this definitively. But neither my atrocious sight-reading nor my dreadful recital performances did anything to curtail my love of music for you need not compose, create, or even read a melody to revel in it. That s the magic of music. It needs no translation. Words, however, do.
 
While musicians can transcend language, writers are bound by it. Think of all the cheesy lyrics we tolerate and even enjoy in love songs that would induce vomiting if they ever appeared in a book of poetry minus the music. I expect that even the brilliant Beyoncé and Jay-Z know that the real genius behind a song like Crazy in Love isn t in the bizarre bridge (Uh oh, uh oh, uh oh, oh, no, no . . .) or the captivat­ing chorus (Got me lookin so crazy right now . . .), but in the notes.
 
Eight centuries ago and thousands of miles away, the great Per­sian mystic poet and Islamic scholar Molana Jalaloddin Muhammad Balkhi Rumi knew this too. For while Rumi s verse is made up en­tirely of words, it s more than that. In Persian, also known as Farsi, the word for poem shehr means song as well. By no coinci­dence, Rumi s classical Persian verse isn t meant to be read while sit­ting, but rather sung while spinning. For this is how Rumi composed his mystical poetry, whirling and rhyming ecstatically. The miracle here is that this verse isn t just good; it s extraordinary which is why it has been translated into every major language on earth. It s also why Rumi has become so wildly popular around the world today especially in America, where he is often identified as the bestselling poet in the country and has arguably earned the highest seal of ap­proval from American pop culture, as Bey and Jay have now named a daughter after him.
 
There is a reason Rumi s poetry has survived so long and reached so far. His rhymes honor the

Melody Moezzi is a writer, speaker, activist, commentator, columnist, attorney and award-winning author. Her books include War on Error: Real Stories of American Muslims, and more recently, Haldol and Hyacinths: A Bipolar Life, which earned wide critical acclaim and broke new ground as the first mainstream mental health memoir by either a Muslim or a Middle-Easterner. Moezzi is a blogger for Ms. magazine, and a featured regular columnist, blogger, and vlogger for bp [Bipolar] Magazine. She maintains her own YouTube channel and video blog, A Saner Spin, answering readers' questions and addressing a variety of issues, including mental health, wellness and spirituality. Moezzi's writing has appeared on NPR and CNN, and in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, The Daily Beast, The Guardian, Hürriyet, and the South China Morning Post, among many other outlets.

A heartening narrative of family, transformation, and courage the book could shatter a variety of prejudices and stereotypes. Kirkus Reviews

The Rumi Prescription is a testament to the healing power of artand its ability to bring peace to our battered souls. Sometimes thecure we need is not a pill, but a poem. Firoozeh Dumas, New York Times bestselling author of Funny in Farsi

As a lover of beautiful sentences and a secret self-help addict, I gobbled up this groundbreaking book, relishing the language, the wisdom, and the vivid and moving portrait of a father and daughter. Whether you read it for its fine translations of Rumi, its engrossing story, or as a practical guide for self-care, please give yourself the gift of reading The Rumi Prescription. David Gessner, New York Times bestselling author of All the Wild That Remains and The Tarball Chronicles

Melody Moezzi takes Rumi down from a dusty bookshelf, breathes life into his ancient wisdom, and makes him our guide through common contemporary struggles: anger, anxiety, distraction, and more. The Rumi Prescription translates the wisdom of a medieval mystic into the voice of a wise, honest, irreverent friend who tells us what we most need to hear. Krista Bremer, author of My Accidental Jihad and A Tender Struggle

A stunning memoir. Melody Moezzi merges medieval poetry with modern drama, exploring love, politics, and mental health. Original translations of Rumi s poems are interspersed with ruminations on fatherhood, feminism, and self-care, offering insights that will changeyour life. I wish I could prescribe this memoir. Dr. Seema Yasmin, MD, author of Muslim Women Are Everything: Stereotype-Shattering Stories of Courage, Inspiration, and Adventure

This book enlightened, delighted, and actively helped me. It s a love letter sent across centuries, from one artist to another and decades, from a daughter to her father and in the here and now, from a writer to