Ruminations was inspired by the thirteenth century poet, scholar, and Sufi mystic, Rumi, who wrote in his native tongue, Persian, and will be published by Finishing Line Press in late July or August, 2026. I am grateful to Coleman Barks for his sensitive and insightful translations of Rumi’s poetry as well as for his stories about Rumi’s life. Each of my poems is inspired by a line or a thought from one of Rumi’s.
Praise for Ruminations
“In Ruminations, Judy Bebelaar uses quotations from Rumi as the starting points for exquisite poems that reflect her own experiences of love, loss, and awe. Beauty and wonder abound in these poems: “This flock of birds, / their wings dark knives / cutting sapphire.” In poems at once sturdy and delicate, Bebelaar reminds us to hang onto hope in our troubled world: “In spite of missing birds / and poisoned bees, / Spring still holds her promises.””
-Lucille Lang Day, Author of Birds of San Pancho and Other Poems of Place
“Judy Bebelaar’s poems are a meditation on “life’s persistence” as she invites us into her dance with the Sufi poet, Rumi. Bebelaar isn’t shy about combining grief and joy, unimaginable loss and the embrace of the “… summer-soft hills.” She recalls the “fat fruit” of an apricot tree and her husband, John’s, lean, tanned body. Both man and tree are gone; still, Bebelaar admits to a “strange elation” in just “being here. . . surging forward.” Her quiet acceptance rubs off on us, and we feel calmer, grateful for the time we’ve spent with her. In the final poem of this exquisite collection, she asks for “more days, please,” more life.”
-Katharine Harer, Author of Deconfliction
“Judy Bebelaar’s new collection of poetry lets the calm continual turning at the center of Rumi’s spirit move us again, through delicate observations of love, mortality, and nature’s joys. Reflections of her husband, lost to cancer decades ago, are particularly poignant, yet all the poems navigate time and place beautifully, and can be likened, as she says at the end of “Aspen,” to “roots below the clone/(that) flow in Rumi’s rings.””
–Eliot Schain, Author of The Distant Sound
