The Art of Storm-riding

Source: Unknown/favim.com

I could not decipher the living riddle of my body
put it to sleep when it hungered, and overfed it
when time came to dream

I nearly choked on the forked tongue of my spirit
between the real and the ideal, rejecting the one
and rejected by the other

I still have not mastered that art of storm-riding
without ears to apprehend howling winds
or eyes for rolling waves

Always the weather catches me unawares, baffled
by maps, compass, stars and the entire apparatus
of bearings or warning signals

Clutching at driftwood, eyes screwed shut, I tremble
hoping the unhinged night will pass and I remember
how once I shielded my flame.

~ Yahia Lababidi

The Art of Storm-riding

Source: Unknown/favim.com

I could not decipher the living riddle of my body
put it to sleep when it hungered, and overfed it
when time came to dream

I nearly choked on the forked tongue of my spirit
between the real and the ideal, rejecting the one
and rejected by the other

I still have not mastered that art of storm-riding
without ears to apprehend howling winds
or eyes for rolling waves

Always the weather catches me unawares, baffled
by maps, compass, stars and the entire apparatus
of bearings or warning signals

Clutching at driftwood, eyes screwed shut, I tremble
hoping the unhinged night will pass and I remember
how once I shielded my flame.

~ Yahia Lababidi

Words

Source: jazzadvice.com

Words are like days:

coloring books or pickpockets,

signposts or scratching posts,

fakirs over hot coals.

Certain words must be earned

just as emotions are suffered

before they can be uttered

- clean as a kept promise.

Words as witnesses

testifying their truths

squalid or rarefied

inevitable, irrefutable.

But, words must not carry

more than they can

it’s not good for their backs

or their reputations.

For, whether they dance alone

or with an invisible partner,

every word is a cosmos

dissolving the inarticulate.

~ Yahia Lababidi

______________________________________ 

Always and never are two words you should always remember never to use. ~ Wendell Johnson

Words

Source: jazzadvice.com

Words are like days:

coloring books or pickpockets,

signposts or scratching posts,

fakirs over hot coals.

Certain words must be earned

just as emotions are suffered

before they can be uttered

- clean as a kept promise.

Words as witnesses

testifying their truths

squalid or rarefied

inevitable, irrefutable.

But, words must not carry

more than they can

it’s not good for their backs

or their reputations.

For, whether they dance alone

or with an invisible partner,

every word is a cosmos

dissolving the inarticulate.

~ Yahia Lababidi

______________________________________ 

Always and never are two words you should always remember never to use. ~ Wendell Johnson