Khalid Mukhtar

Word, like wind, cuts through you / Withers all but true you

Poetry

A Time And A Place

· ·

There is a time when you need to be
Returning, repentant and still,
For times were when you went cold like the sea
And drowned everything in a swill.

There is a place where you need to be
To fix all the damage you’d done
To bodies and minds and hearts couldn’t see
Impaired by the blindness of fun.

The time here is now, the place now is here,
It’s all you have got, and yourself to fear.

Letting Go To Hold On

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You lay upon that ledge of death and grabbed
My hand, I begged you not to let it go,
But saw the razor edge of breath that stabbed
And thus released your fettered soul. I know
I was a fool, distracted by a cloud
That wept above your ledge to frame this scene
In hills of sorrow, graying, heavy browed
Through winds of comfort blowing in between.
But now I understand my fall was best
Toward this grand abyss of life, was shown
You earned your lofty ledge of death, so rest;
And I shall climb to one that is my own.
I see now that the tears of that cloud
Were rains of mercy we were both allowed.

Under The Influence

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We can designate a driver
If we know we’re going to speed
In the clutches of a spirit
Or the overdrive of weed,
But there is an old intoxicant
The heart can feed the brain
That can taint our blood without a trace
And make us go insane.
And the only way to keep that drug
From getting in our veins
Is to bring respect, humanity
And patience to our lanes.
Anger injures, anger maims,
Anger kills, anger burns
Like a coal from hell behind the wheel
Negotiating turns.
You say no to drugs, to alcohol
And even shun your phone
As you rev up all four thousand pounds
Of metal that you own.
Now it’s time we take a pledge,
Bring our decency along,
Show some spine and wage restraint
Against the influences strong
Of the deadliest impulses
That can ornament the wrong.
Let’s not cast the melody of life
Into a funeral song,
But defuse this bomb, locate those wires
And cut them off at seethe,

To return where life begins, and learn
To breathe. And let breathe.

Swiping Away My Tears

· ·

I have no tears left to shed for you,
No sympathetic words slide off my tongue,
The salty streams of sympathy you’re due
Evaporate upon the setting sun
Upon which I recline in heedless glee
And never long for water once, so tell
Me how a heart as drunk as mine may see
The horror in a face that’s been to hell.
It is ironic when my heart inclines
Toward you in a stand-up comic’s pokes,
And that if all my empathy defines,
Do understand: it’s hard to weep at jokes.
I have no tears left to shed for you;
For now, a mastercard will have to do.

Diamond In The Rough

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It’s fascinating how a stone may lie
Deep  down beneath a hundred miles of earth,
And stay there as a billion years go by
To grow in hardness lending it it’s worth.
It’s fascinating how a child may live
Deep down beneath a thousand miles of pain,
And stay there, although everything may give
Till beating heart and fighting soul remain.
This is the tale of diamonds in the rough,
Unknown and unacknowledged through their time,
And as if all that pressure’s not enough,
They’re covered with the thickest coats of grime.
To shine is not up to the stone or child
But to the hand that finds it in the wild.

On Riverside Walks

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I’ve strolled this river often thinking why
I find myself attracted to its shore,
And after some such strolling, can’t deny
The reasons why it makes my spirit soar.
Down icy slopes it rushes, breaks and winds
And falls and crashes past its many bends,
Yet through its madding gush, direction finds
To get to where its epic journey ends.
As every bend and crash may wealth exchange,
It knows to never turn away from streams,
No matter what their source, however strange,
It joins them all to reach the sea of dreams.
And though I turn around, it onward rolls
Indifferent to my thoughts on pensive strolls.

Heart And Sole

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They stand me up and sit me down,
I’m safe when they are on the ground,
Past fields, through woods, up canyons grand,
Oh, how I love the touch of land.
I know my feet have served me well,
Though there were times I know I fell.

And bikes and trams and trains and cars,
And ships and planes and flights to Mars
Are one side of the great divide
Between a ride and happy stride.

We drive and float and fly, yet greet
A chance to be upon our feet,


A bond that’s shared by earth and heart
Grows stronger as they drift apart,

And if you dare survive, you must
Let feet and face both kiss the dust;
From dust we come, in dust demise
Till all that settles comes to rise.

The Kingdom Trap

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I tried to capture into the confines of a sonnet the gist of Shaykh Amin’s insights into the conclusory verses of Surah Al-Qasas (the chapter of The Story). The entire exegesis (available here as Session 13) is a valuable commentary on the singular gravest crisis of our times.

When waters whelmed the tyrant and his men
And drained that wealthy kingdom of its power,
It seemed the consequence of all that then
Would be for slaves to rise up to the hour
And take it back. But came the high command
That turned them east and set them desert-bound
That they may become of the Promised Land
Of Paradise where lasting peace is found.
And thus the most beloved of the Lord
Returned, a conqueor with head bowed low
With reason for the conquest: to afford
The Abrahamic pilgrimage. So know:
Seek kingdom and authority on earth
To be deprived of it where has it worth.

Falling Snow

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Forging a new form. I find this one works well to combine a visual scene with an abstract thought that it inspires. The form comprises five stanzas:

  1. A sestet detailing a scene (two lines of trimeter and one tetrameter, repeating as aac bbc)
  2. A couplet summarizing the scene (trimeter, i.e. keep it short)
  3. A sestet re-inforcing the preceding stanzas and/or gradually introducing the abstraction (same meter as first sestet)
  4. A couplet followed by 
  5. A tercet – i.e. five lines that clarify the abstraction.

I’m going to try and repeat this form in a future post to see if it holds up :-). Share your thoughts in a comment here, or email me.

Powdered sugar driveways;
Slipping on the highways;
Crystal wonder flakes in motion;
Fallen in an hour
In a gentle shower,
Look around you: it’s an ocean.

Snow, snow, snow, everywhere,
Float and blow through the air,

Let the whiners blather
On that they would rather
Brave the summertime commotion.
Feel the mercy falling,
I can hear you calling
Through the layers of this notion.

Snow and love fall the same
From above in the name

Of the ever living,
And forever giving
Center of a heart’s devotion.

On The Not So Many Things I Cannot Stand

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There aren’t so many things I cannot stand,
But of the ones I cannot stand at all
Are: handshakes feeling like they’ll break my hand,
Explosive laughter on a conference call,
Responses to thank you that thank you back,
Gum plastered on the underside of benches,
Recurrent breaks in chatter for a snack,
And toilets left unflushed, emitting stenches.
All these I find disturbing, it is true,
But one thing I can’t stand with loathing deep
Is being woken from a slumber through
The asking of the question, You asleep?
My tolerance for whiners, though, is high;
They do not bother me. I wonder why.

This sonnet was borne by the silence of an early afternoon Metra ride out of Chicago. I think it was inspired by some “explosive laughter” on a conference call from earlier in the day.