I want not to Forget

                              I want not to Forget

How I felt,
when I thought I knew
what it all meant,
and what it all summed up to,
one and true.
I want not to forget
that it was through
you that I was one
then two,
it was you,
through and through
that made
the old new,
and the new blue.
I saw what you saw
and I breathed
what you spew, 
raw, unbroken
and un-wreathed,
so could you.
I want not to forget
and avoid this
void, this foil,
and this shadow
of a distant glow.
I heard what you heard,
and I got all you meant,
un-thought and un-shared.
But I grow old,
and forget some,
remember some,
as I bow un-bold
to time and its will.
I want not to forget,
as I climb through this still
holding so it can vet 
one cravesse un-told.

Stay of an E-motion

                                Stay of an E-motion

The moon of another sky
attests
come and celebrate!
I shout in murmur, what?
and not wait...
for an answer...
for a stay...
of that old fate,
and this recurring blur,
but...
it comes...
like silence, when it
weighs in
heavy...and flouts
all that has been
like burning rays
on a two-fold grin
that won't quit,
an E-motion
in a sea of enumerable Es
motion-less
or they seem, immovable
like this stay
of but one E-motion
that sees none now
but this thing...
more or less...
as it runs and shuns
the sun of another sky,
and another stay
of another day,
still stirring for its bless.

Vaccine

                  Vaccine

against all that is
...felt
and all that will
...be dreamt.
To slow down time,
and give me back
what is or what
was
...mine,
to give me back me
here and now,
in black and
...white.
Keep them colors
for they live
in moments
I plow into blurs
narrow and deep
but never found
only to give
and never
allowed to
...save. 
A vaccine against
all that
and less,
is what I craved
...once or twice
to be at hand,
scant, but seen
...to bless
and
to...sieve
this virtue
from that vice,
and you from me.

A Palestinian Wedding

                                         A Palestinian Wedding

What do you see, through and through?
what clues to hear?
colors and hues that run,
amid murmurs of a son,
sent chasing none
across a cosmic silence
but he, who flew
for-ever here...and
always near, can't you see?  
beyond the burnt darkness,
beyond its lost lights
and its hidden sights,
or that stubborn credence.
This is a wedding like no other,
a Palestinian treading
of sorrow and joy...
together, but of stolen space
and time...borrowed and disjoint,
only here and now, its their own
their grace, and their unknown.
For now all is here
in a distant near,
save he...their prime, and she...
his pride, can't you see?
its like no other.
Smell the thyme
and taste the sweet
for she and he...
unlike you and me,
are close yet unreached
there, on that pedestal
brighter than real
and stronger than now
or how, where their time is null
and their space...
may mull and choose
to be theirs, as their being,
once again in unspoken vows,
in silence, just like this Palestinian wedding,
neither near or whole,
and never ours to trace,
only once is theirs to hold
or for-ever lose.

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.