Solve the one, resolve the other,
And then combine them both together,
Describing a product of ruinous weather.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
You hammer a nail in my face,
But I do not bleed when you do,
You taint me with words of disgrace,
But I do not heed words of you,
You may go no further beyond where I stand
Except through a portal proportioned and grand,
Although such a portal would often be bland.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Two parts of HAND one part of FOX;
A space in the hand won’t kill the effects,
But you can to free what is held by the locks.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Poetry
Bazaar Rap
Tread with care: it’s the Internet.
You best beware of the sin in it.
You know how they call this thing the world wide web,
Eyes on your wallet and your every step
As you stroll through the streets of this crowded bazaar,
Take care who you meet, don’t you ramble too far,
Know the longer that you ramble, less the roses more the bramble;
E’en the roses aren’t safe in this party of dead,
Smell them LONG enough, and they will mess with your head,
Just walk right on keeping straight to your way
Past the shops by the hundreds, watching well what you say;
This bazaar will remember everything that you do,
Everything that you say, and everything said to you.
So, tread with care: it’s the Internet.
You best beware of the sin in it.
2014 Chaining Project Unveiled at Madame Zuzu’s, And Another Open-mic
Last night was the unveiling of the 2014 Chaining Project conducted by the Highland Park Poetry Chain Gang. I was at the event held at Madame Zuzu’s Tea shop and Art Studio in Highland Park.
It was enjoyable to hear the chain begin with Arthur Rimbaud’s Time Without End, navigate through verse describing a hike in the woods along a polluted stream, and culminate in defeat at a ball game :-).
The open-mic that followed was more interesting than usual. I performed Take Heart, Cabbage Wisdom, and One-Dream Child.
Also it turns out Madame Zuzu’s is owned by Billy Corgan, once frontman for the Smashing Pumpkins. I read some excerpts from his anthology titled Blinking with Fists. Not bad at all.
About the tea served at Madame Zuzu’s… well, the water was certainly hot.
Thursday Riddle (April 10, 2014)
Although true and faithful I ever remain,
My colors I change again and again;
Berate me and hate me and slight, even spite me,
Think twice fore you fight me: a battle with time;
Your failure to sight me: unfortunate crime.
I seldom inspire a word,
And often the former imply,
I’m ever tween where the two of you fare
And where stands one questioning why.
Thursday Riddle (April 3, 2014)
The purest of heart my service employs
To make a sweet calm to descend;
But when we are parted, the innocent noise
Brings all of the sweetness to end;
A part of me sounds like it burns and destroys,
Yet all of me is a good friend
To mother and father and brother and sister,
Who on me can come to depend.
Thursday Riddle (March 27, 2014)
Its yours and it flows where you deem
It useful in matters of learning;
For some, like a brook; for others a stream;
A river for those more discerning.
It knows where you are, it can find you
And float you to places so far,
Beware its reflections may blind you
And make you forget who you are.
Although through the meadows it goes,
To Paradise never it bends,
For heaven starts where the sum of what flows
From all of humanity ends.
Beacon
You’re lost, but only lost until you find
Your place before the One who’s ever found,
So cling to hope, and leave despair behind
And be for paradise forever bound.
As does the sailor high upon the sea
See through the blast of consternating waves
And fix his eye on beacon distantly
Though what it stands upon be what he craves,
So does the slave that seeks by night or day
See through the blast of consternating life
And fix his eye on him who shows the way
No matter the intensity of strife.
You have to take the means to reach the end,
So seek with sweet remembrance, weary friend.
Grandlove
I fuss over children whose grandfather once
Did dote on my mother, and uncles and aunts;
It maybe that one day my grandson will see
The face of his cousin remembering me,
A cousin whose parents and uncles and aunts
Will have been who I will have doted on once.
Thursday Riddle (March 20, 2014)
Can never be lost, not easy to share,
It fills empty spaces (and I don’t mean air),
Preceding the first, succeeding the last,
Delaying your death, returning your past;
By darkness or light, in silence it lies
Where, hidden from sight of all-seeing eyes,
Just anything might compel its demise.
Song of the Despondent Slave
Wherever you might be: shun the darkness of despair, and walk in the light of hope.
I wish I could smoke it away,
This hurt that I feel everyday,
No substance may burn the demons that turn
My grief into idols of clay.
Don’t judge me, you don’t know my pain,
I’ve lost what I love once again,
Forgotten to smile, the tears run wild,
And drain every cell in my brain.
I know the despair in my voice
Invites the accursed to rejoice
For he did attest that he wouldn’t rest
Till grief be my singular choice;
O Allah, I need to embrace
The reason I am in this place,
You gave me this pain, again and again
That I may now turn to Your face.
My hope lies in sabrun jameel,
There’s nothing else I need to feel,
For Jannah is where my heart will repair
And all of my injury heal.
So bless my each moment, command
My heart to a peace that is grand,
You know that my lips are longing for sips
To quench all my thirst at the hand
Of blessed Rasul al-Kareem,
O Allah, make everything seem
So easy for me, oh please let me see
The Truth, for this life is a dream.
Make easy for me that I may now see
The Truth, for this life is a dream.
O Allah! Enable me to see the Truth as Truth and give me the ability to follow it. And enable me to see falsehood as false and give me the ability to refrain from it.