Khalid Mukhtar

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

9-2-1441

· ·

There was a time when all I knew
About Your love for me
Was in the sweet countenance of my mother

Then one night she returned to You
And with her all that sweetness too
And love: I thought I’d never know another

Then all my thoughts on love and loving
Came between Your Hands
So beautiful the manner you arrayed it

To fathom what beloved means
Can raise up from the sands
The fragments of a love that never made it

For years I held my intellect
A candle to the sun
A folly burned and sent where follies go

Until I came to see her face
In Your love for the one
Who loves me more than I can ever know

9-1-1441

· ·

This must be the first wave
Of Rahmah from You
That I woke up today
Realizing it’s true

I’m lesser compared
With the souls I have mocked
Much lesser in view
Of the path I have walked

Cast my heart on the hearth
Of this furnace divine
Let it be of the ones
That You choose to refine

Wretched

· ·

No matter how many mouths I feed
How selflessly kind or noble the deed
It’s only taufīq if I see the tauhīd
If I don’t I must be the wretch in need

Garden-bound

· ·

Magnolia; photo courtesy: Maryam C.
I’m going on a vacation
I’m never coming back
It will be joy, pure joy
Won’t you come with me, khalid

There’ll be acres of grassy meadows
That front a garden green
A garden spread much wider than
All the forests you’ve ever seen

And the trees stand tall and mighty
With their leaves of green and gold
With fruit that offer themselves
For the plucking, I am told

We’ll eat one together
We’ll share it if you stay
Not because we’ll need to but I think
We’ll like it more that way

I’ll take a bite and lose myself
In the high that it will bring
You’ll take a bite and lose yourself
In a song you’ll want to sing

It will be exhilarating
But we won’t go out of breath
We’ll be all done with breathing
No more injury or death

And then we’ll talk about it all
As we sit down by a stream divine
I’d probably talk about my garden
My garden, yes, all mine

All mine

You will have your garden too
We can go visit it later, or
We could go there first, or whenever
But whenever won’t be a thing anymore

If I get there first, then promise me
You’ll come along as well
We’ll never have to leave that place
Where pleasures only swell

And I won’t ever have to write
My thoughts in ether or paper
But I could if I really wanted to
If that’s what I really want to do

Please promise me you’ll come
Make sure you plant your garden first
Before you pack your things
And trade your breath for wings

I’ll meet you by the fountain

Just saying

· ·

It’s only wise if you can tell
That the saying when it’s said
Is a wisdom as well

Horizon

· ·

Patient submission lies in
The manner you see the horizon:
The sky is your hopes
The sea, your plans
The wind churning waves
The wheel in your hands

Weeds

· ·

And now I would like
To rely on a rhyme
And venture to show you
To watch for a sign

What glitters and glistens
Is not always gold
What starts out as new
Is destined to get old

How clever it seems
And how clever it gets
Though stupid it is
In reality. Let’s

See how clever it seemed
And how clever it got
Though stupid it was
In reality. What

Have you done with the minute
You spent on this bit
For a payoff that wasn’t
Worth any of it

Deluge

· ·

I lost my way
On the brightest day
For the path that was lit
Led to darkness

I found my sight
In the darkest night
When I drowned in the flood
Of His Nūr