Kim Raff | The Salt Lake Tribune Coleman Barks, acclaimed poet, translator and interpreter, recites the poetry of 13th century Persian mystic Rumi with Grammy award winning cellist, David Darling during Evening of Rumi with Music and Commentary – A Turning Night of Stars at the Gardner Concert Hall in Salt Lake City on February 28, 2013.

More than 700 people attended a Thursday event highlighting the ecstatic poetry of 13th century Persian mystic Rumi, widely read in America today and performed by poet, translator and interpreter Coleman Barks, accompanied by Grammy-award winning cellist David Darling.

The Two Arrows Zen Center and the Jung Society of Utah hosted the event, A Turning Night of Stars, at Libby Gardner Concert Hall at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

“We see it really as a ceremony or ritual when there’s poetry and music that lifts people up into a new field of consciousness,” said Machiel Klerk, a Jungian therapist in Salt Lake City.

Watch Coleman Barks here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A72qJkvrfDY