0 commentsDespair stabbed me on the way to delight:
Its jagged blade, forged of hardened tears,
Shore off the jasmine fragrance of the night,
Postponed the puissant dawn for another year.
O watch that won’t run, day that refuses to break!
What infernal flaw ground your gears to a halt?
How do I weather the sorrow foaming in your wake
Or, tired and alone, ward off your relentless assault?
Like a wayward meteor, I tumble through a sky
That resents me, subject to laws I never chose;
Yet that inner law of anarchic love belies
The empty sheets made empty by a lover’s woes.
O Lady Justice, come see what has transpired!
Surely you will listen to my appeal,
And restore to life a bliss that had expired,
Lest the eternal law of lovers be repealed.
Monday, June 13, 2011 8:45 PM
0 commentsToward the eastern gate of this walled-in life
A rain advances with the urgency of men
Marching ever prouder, ever louder,
In order to conceal injustice
With a crescendo of flags and uniforms.
Thus the rain advances, with its silver
Uniformity, its blanketing cloud
Of war, its ubiquitous watery
Domination, its soldier-drops
That pounce on the soil
With the impact of a blinding mission.
And the city of this life, ablaze with city-lights,
Grips its collective weaponry with the fury
Of impending defeat, the rage of intrusion,
And the sorrow of death.
0 commentsI wrote this poem in the run-up to the war in Iraq in March of 2003.
Who doesn’t want peace?
Who doesn’t prefer
A white jasmine wind,
Or an amber dawn
To the black unveiling
of bombs?
Who doesn’t love to love
And be loved by saline lips?
We are strong as magnets:
In order to hold together
We divide until a no-man’s land
Fuses our disarray,
And to surrender to the center
Is to die.
Who doesn’t want peace?
We disagree, opine, demonstrate,
Raise arms, palms, prayers, shouts--
We agree, unite, stare off into discontent,
Drop bombs, flags, clothes, lies and truths.
And now I ask you, as a poet
Caught between your truth
And my truth, my lies
And your lies,
What will become of my poems
After we damn the last river,
Destroy the last forest,
Culture, life?
Who will read my work
When the last soldier dies
In the name of peace?
What will happen to
Our disagreement
If mankind kills itself?
When all was said and done,
Who did not want peace?
monday, march 23rd, 2003
0 commentsMy bed, that house within a house,
Built of timber from your inner copse, now
Splinters in the dawn, and I must douse
The kisses destined for your brow,
Lest the dreamer destroy the dream
And repose fall from its narrow beam.
O, but how the poet longs
To mingle with your lips,
To plunge into the throngs
Of mysteries between your hips!
For neither sorrow nor deceit outweigh
The truth those mysteries convey!
Time, that marauding force,
Has yet to plunder my home,
Though history ran its course
And added to its mighty, darkened tome;
Alas, the warmth of the future
is to the alluring past but a feeble suture!
The edifice crumbles, but does not fall;
Empty space remains empty for you;
Together we sleep, curled into a ball
Of hope that bounces out of view.
Thus I ask: can I possibly be sane
So long as you, the departed, still remain?
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
0 comments
The fallen flaming leaf
Waits for the snow in vain,
Hopes to cool the burning wreath
That leaves its heart in pain
Before the winds of decay
Silence passion’s ecstasy.
O leaf, whose drops of fire
Point their fingers at the sky,
Whose vibrant sinews seek the ire
Trapped in eyes that blink, but do not cry,
What passing cloud, what swirling star
Can return your lover from afar?
I am the leaf, I am the flame,
And I am the snow
That makes anonymous my name;
For only the true lover knows
That time heals not wounds
Else the sanguine sinews cease to swoon.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Click here to download a PDF of my complete thesis. Questions and comments are much appreciated!
My masters thesis in Environmental Studies at Brown University looks at how microfinance--the provision of small…
Micro-credit has undoubtedly been a runaway success in developing countries as a tool of both poverty alleviation and economic development. To date, some 100 million people have been reached by micro-loans, and Muhammad Yunus, the founder of the Grameen Bank…
It is late and my mind should be drifting through the colorful abyss of deep sleep, yet instead i find that tonight sleep will not come. I am like a hungry flower who dreams of bees so ardently that all…