Long Muezzin Poems

I’m not saying my father hated the English, God forbid. If he were still alive, he’d hate to hear me say that. He’d correct me right away and say he didn’t hate the English. Truth...

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Black Iraqi Woman
Written by Faleeha Hassan
Translated from the Arabic by William Hutchins
Shortly before my father died, he whispered to me longingly: “Daughter, treasure this, because it authenticates your heritage to our kinsfolk!” When I accepted...

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Bilal ibn Rabah (580–640 AD) also known as Bilal ibn Riyah, and ibn Rabah), was one of the most trusted and loyal Sahabah (companions) of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He was born in Mecca and...

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Can a man – all alone - foist a god upon his fellows
Even if it’s only himself
And they his subjects

G.. is Akbar!

Does the muezzin from the minaret of Qoutoub-Minar
look up or
down to the illiterate savant...

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Experienced a third bigger earthquake recently but this poem I wrote for a smaller earthquake years ago)

My first trivial tremor experience had been in Southern Africa
And now this puny earthquake I felt in Tanzania. 

I...

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When tears dry up and laughter is not funny any longer
As duvet feathers grind the weary soul to sunken skin
The parchments dehydrated canvas folds the poet’s path
A cliche strewn among the notion ‘it will make...

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THE AL-ANDALUS QUARTET: PART THREE
GRANADA / KHARNATA 1492 AD / 897 AH

I live in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada
with my beautiful sisters Albaicin and Sabikah
The crown that I wear is al-hisn al-hamra 
and the...

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Fate’s Footfalls

Fatima climbed up the spiral Minaret’s stairwell a
	case of mathematical precision a fountain of courage

One step at a time with geometric accuracy she 
	counted the odds and the even the skewed surface of life

Prime...

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The Ruba’iyat of Créteil Lake – Part Ten

Of late dying yellowing orange rays glint through the turret
Where neither muezzin nor mullah bids the sun to set
Lyceen lassies in threes swear by a ghostly figure
A gaunt...

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Blasphemy

Blatantly ephemeral or plain outright naughty and lustful
Praying for beauty in the eye of beholding passionate Gods
Angles and half dome shaped wishes curve balls and all
~ Those who write by the sword are judged by...

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April 23rd,
The seductive smoky weed descending from Kabiru swept through my nostril
Cracky creepy shanties sneaking 
Pulsating stench sneering from gutters
Churning and choky smoke oozing from the BRT buses
Area boys bullying
Police officers begging for spiritual currency
Perputuality...

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One thousand and one fluttering butterflies in one centre all
                         ...

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The glowing sun is just about set
And I have a glass of wine in my hand
A candle burns in a robust flame
My beloved snuggles in my embrace,
There’s a prospect of romance in the air--
And Muezzin*...

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The wind is blowing,
Blowing strong and boisterous 
It's the wind of change
Tiffany truffles truncation.

Gale winds bowing to the
Prayer called by the Muezzin
The wind gauge is fixated
To the North's polarity.
Algorithms has altered its course.

All runing away...

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Heat waves cavort around your face
transforming it before my eyes
watching in fertile silence...
... through faceless days of scorching torture reeling
into darkness, ballet of countless veils - subtle need, vibrant with passion of
the soil,
and not waiting...

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The call of the muezzin, drifting over the wall,
mixes with the odors 
of diesel, cooking oil, and humanity,
as I watch a lone kite flying above low houses, 
a smear of red across dun colored hovels,
crouched...

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