Khalid Mukhtar

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

Poetry

The Wilderness Within

· · Leave a Comment

This was my pantoum entry at the June 12 Pentathlon. It is about inspiration. Note that the 2nd and 4th line of each stanza are the 1st and 3rd line of the subsequent stanza with the exception that the 2nd and 4th lines of the last stanza are the 3rd and 1st lines of the first stanza. I know, cool yet crazy.

I sense a clear drop of dew,
Upon a dry and thirsty leaf,
Announce the start of something new.
I love a cloud that rains relief

Upon a dry and thirsty leaf
Within this wilderness I know
I love: A cloud that rains relief
To help me pay the debt I owe.

Within this wilderness, I know
Of wind and rain and songs of birds
To help me pay the debt I owe
My sanity. Returning words

Of wind and rain, and songs of birds
Thus grace my forests now. And then
My sanity returns in words
Each day, and every moment when

Disgraced. My forests now and then
Announce the start of something new
Each day and every moment when
I sense a clear drop is due.

Pentathlon

· · Leave a Comment

I went up against some sharp competition Friday night at the Highland Park Annual Poetry Pentathlon. Shout out to Bryce Johnson on a well-deserved victory.

There were five events in all (hence ‘pentathlon’):

  • The Pantoum (just google it)
  • The Epistle (letter in verse)
  • Poetry Potluck (perform another contestant’s entry)
  • Fairy Tale Poem (written from the viewpoint of a minor character in a fairy tale)
  • On the spot (prompt provided when you walk in)

I’ll publish my entries in separate posts now. Tell me what you think.

My Quiver of Waste

· · Leave a Comment

I think that a thought is an arrow that springs
From the bow of an intellect grand
By the coincidence of a number of things,
All crafted in destiny’s hand.

The tenser the bowstring, the farther it goes
To land in a sea of a plan,
A hilltop of action, a field of repose,
Or a swamp of the words of a man.

A Time And A Place

· · Leave a Comment

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

· · Leave a Comment

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

· · Leave a Comment

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

· · Leave a Comment

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

· · Leave a Comment

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

· · Leave a Comment

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

· · Leave a Comment

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.