Stray Echoes

Stray Echoes

One too many
faces, plights and things 
that make up this realm
racing to agree
and may be commence  
but whose moment is long overwhelmed
by a stray light not free
of what she brings
and what might be
now then and hence
empty like the old sea
whose stray echoes are frozen 
and forbidden to be
as they remain cold but tense
Count me always
in this and the next
but do not look me in the eyes
insisting to makes sense
of it all, of one thing
this time is too dense
and this space is too vexed
to reach that lull
where the fence sits
and where time subtends
one plight too many
whose pain is too heavy
and its dull face lends
nothing to this beginning 
or to that null, aching end.

My Fair Lady Fairuz

                                      My Fair Lady Fairuz


Young and old and in between
your voice was is and will
always be
a phoenician myth
transcending all
sea and mountains
and all that was
or yet to be
It shines like translucent warm rays
from that eastern surreal sun
touching this sorrow and that joy
serenading their lonely lunes
in their lonely desert
to gentler mornings and hazier dreams
from them they hide and they run
But your voice my fair lady
is always there
like that eastern surreal sun
to give life back its vow
again and again
to words and tunes
that tell tales
of love loss
hope and pain
as only angels know how
Young and old and in between
my fair lady sings
as only angels know how
and as time brings
once or twice
every millennia or two
a phoenician myth
only heard and seen.

"A Cosmic Portal" (by Muthaffar al-Nawwab in translation)

                                                "A Cosmic Portal"
                                  (by Muthaffar al-Nawwab in translation)

Light not the night
in the guts of the damp alleys
but with tears and fire
and escort your young forth
as sorry trophies 
on adorned rebel prey
spells for your newborn
from the valiant checkered cloth 
A chaste dagger stands
against a different time
but this stale rhyme
whenever the bursting arrows 
make it heed to a wider swath
Like a vessel concedes
not to epochs or ends
and raises its arms
facing fates and winds
They gather to carry her 
to her resting place
while she to their dawn
The martyr's wing is as wide
as their ways are wrong
for he's not down or out
if he wishes so hell is more
Yes. . .let your guns go free
let them go forth
wrong are their ways
for the stars are still stark
despite their bark and this dark
for he won't be stunned  
but by a chief who cheats
and I know of one
whose tails the winds beat
Light not the night 
in the martyr's home
but with his wounds 
that glow and from his head shone
only the wounds stay lit
his way in his eyes 
his fingers knit
and his heart straight
like a mare's burst
Its pulse to this earth he had lent
to hasten its chores
his land is their final
and their fore
A cosmic portal opens in song
Bisan is still in his eyes
in his cheeks lips and forehead
waiting for her dawn.

Your Eyes

                             Your Eyes

I see them now

as clear as ages ago

and many blurs since

drowned in hither darkness

and forbidden glow

I see them now 

as I saw them then

to shine and see none

but me this vow and us

never forgotten and always mine

to hide and stow

between this moment

and the next

despite all 

this fall

this vexed silence 

and this unheeded call

I see them now 

...your eyes

forever as my only poem

shining through and through 

this foiled soul

as my only meaning 

my rhyme and my clue

stolen is my sun

without them

no time and no being

and all is numb

untrue doubt and lies

I see them now

...your eyes. 

Ten Years

                                                   Ten Years

I count by ten
every sigh
every breath
every sin
I failed to think 
of you
and no one else
I count alone
as if but a blink
ago
when you closed those
eyes
this glow
this love
for good 
for bad
for bye
but which they froze
and a life is thrown
can I add?
as I sink alone
and I ask why
and I hear none
less or more
did I try?
I still see none
but my son
not below or above
but as sure
as I am here
and as you're
as I will know
that my pain is my own
as I count alone.

In the Desert

                                      In the Desert

By the sea
under frightened skies
of shone past
and stolen tomorrows 
stands your heart
alone by the damned shore 
to love and last
it trembles just once more
for that which it knows
its only sight
in an endless flight  
all too well and gore
moments which are told
and sold
of another day
another breath
failed by our prayers 
in a silent roar
to a crowded death 
nameless and faceless
and all too eager to bore
into our shameless
souls and our timeless
frozen core
forgive and forget me
and what not
and spare none
just like your sea
and your huts
as has Canaan
Caesar and the Three
and all the others
before.

Promise Me Not

                                     Promise Me Not

To remain true when all is lost
to forever believe what you see
through those eyes 
not seen but whose light  
is ever 
so near and ever glows so undue
despite their true and sound lies
from here, there and through 
and all that is not 
mine or yours
forever to dream, 
and not to choose 
this thrall of an endeavor 
and this folly of a sight
whose plight not to remember anew
only to recall those as dark and a blur
shapeless and timeless like death 
blown breathless
on those endless, stark shores
or to forget what you knew
to be true
despite you, and me
and all that was not
of your dreams, of your own
but of promises made unfree 
of another, strayed by winds blown
and sown past a fight half fought 
lulled to remain true when all is lost
and all is but 
mine or yours
promise me not, 
to be that which we sought
loved, and was not.