If

If you are living in a world of boundless beauty, 
where hate has no address on the map,
where people speak in elegant verse, always, 
and the road, every road, is paved with only good intentions,
stretching from healthy, iron-fortified, perfect infancy to an ever youthful and vibrant adulthood, encased in succulent opulence, and where birds of every kind can fly and land anywhere at well, in full confidence, where flowers, wild and non-wild, never die, where jaguars and peccaries, and every carnivore and herbivores, see eye-to-eye, where Abel and Cain can lie side by side, with only pure thoughts in the heart of each, then you are living in a dream or you are seriously tripping!

Dr. Azzam Elayan

Adorable Amor

As the wind fiercely blows,

and the cedar window shutters chatter 

the rattling cottage door, 

I close my eyes and relish

the feel of your fingers 

on my lips, my amor! 

I hold you close and caress your cheeks,

and I remember our first embrace,

some years ago, when the sand

was smooth, like silk, 

the moonlight was soft, as your gaze, 

and the ocean waves 

would tease the sea gulls 

along the Nantucket shore!

The white sleeveless shirt you wore,

with the delicate neckline,

the short fitted blue floral skirt, 

the beige leather sandals 

complementing your manicured 

light pink toe nails, all I vividly recall.

I remember the many embraces 

I dreamt of sharing with you 

before that day, much long before. 

In loving you, I found a place to go 

for comfort, for meaning, and 

for learning the art of being 

a fearless lover, a reckless dancer, 

the way of being happy, for sure. 

The window shutters calmed down

and the howling wind melted 

into the ocean breeze. 

We sailed across the point 

of no return, and laid upon 

the cotton clouds, where we have

previously been so many, many times,

where we keep that love,

our love, the love we so adore.

Thank you for all the moments which have since passed, 

for the burning moments of today.

and for the moments to come.

Those are treasures, those will endure. 

Azzam Elayan

Monday, February 25, 2013

Dedicated to my beloved wife.

The Lone Traveler

The tireless traveler is finally tiring,
Requesting a permit to settle,
At the edge of a lake,
Bank of a river,
Deep in the woods,
Foot or back of the hill.
How could he settle 
Afar from mother, father,
Afar from childhood beloveds?
How could he settle
Afar from the narrow streets,
In the ancient cities,
From the heated seas,
Flanking the Fertile Crescent?
The Fertile Crescent is no longer fertile,
The Nile and the Euphrates,
The broken circle is bleeding.
He wishes to return to the Fertile Crescent,
Under the unsullied skies,
Entranced by harmonies of whales,
Seducing, being seduced,
Melodies ascending from the depth of the enchanted seas,
Mingling with stories of a wandering sailor,
Songs of migrant canaries, carrying messages,
From the Red to the Mediterranean Sea.

......

(The above is an excerpt from a poem which I wrote years ago.)

Azzam Elayan

I See You

I see you weaving between
the lanes of torment,
wandering across the broken lines
of regret, searching for
a valiant surrender, a road
on which to repent. 
Tell me your sins, every sin,
spare me none,  
and start at the end! 
Embrace your anger,
let the madness speak, quietly,
apologize for nothing, except nothing.
Move, even if inconsequentially,
move and speak.
The locomotive of time, grinding
beneath you, is weighted;
your life blue prints lie abandoned
on your feathered road,
bonded by sorrow and resident neglect.
Edit, re-write, or burn them.
Start anew, if needed,
speak, move, or be crushed!
You are a lover, with no love,
a dreamer, with wide-lens dreams.
Describe your dreams to me,
where were they to take you,
and how did they get caught
in mangled heft?
I see you weaving between
the lanes of what could've been,
dreaming of a place like no place,
known or to be known.
Yes, I see you now, I see you!
Do you see me?

Dr. Azzam Elayan
February 1, 2013