tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68593587715712999322024-03-13T15:42:15.142+05:30Malinda PoetryMalinda Wordshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17700355635566651088noreply@blogger.comBlogger730125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859358771571299932.post-47665428041487620392023-06-20T19:11:00.003+05:302023-06-20T19:11:33.492+05:30Ode to clothes<p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">Here's a choice:</span></p><div dir="auto" style="color: #313131; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">"torn clothes if you like.”</span></div><div dir="auto" style="color: #313131; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto" style="color: #313131; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">Distinction is a social construct</span></div><div dir="auto" style="color: #313131; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">this truth we know </span></div><div dir="auto" style="color: #313131; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">this truth we unlearn </span></div><div dir="auto" style="color: #313131; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">with singular determination</span></div><div dir="auto" style="color: #313131; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">and train eyes to worship</span></div><div dir="auto" style="color: #313131; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">fashion and trend</span></div><div dir="auto" style="color: #313131; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">those deities manufactured</span></div><div dir="auto" style="color: #313131; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">as all deities are </span></div><div dir="auto" style="color: #313131; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">to obtain confirmation </span></div><div dir="auto" style="color: #313131; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">and make profit on the side,</span></div><div dir="auto" style="color: #313131; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">and not everyone is like Voltaire</span></div><div dir="auto" style="color: #313131; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">able in five minutes </span></div><div dir="auto" style="color: #313131; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">to talk away his face </span></div><div dir="auto" style="color: #313131; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">so he could bed the Queen of England</span></div><div dir="auto" style="color: #313131; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">if he so wished,</span></div><div dir="auto" style="color: #313131; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">not everyone can erase with ease</span></div><div dir="auto" style="color: #313131; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">consecrated inconsequentiality </span></div><div dir="auto" style="color: #313131; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">and not everyone can peel away makeup</span></div><div dir="auto" style="color: #313131; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">un-layer deceitful garments </span></div><div dir="auto" style="color: #313131; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">and bring forth the heart </span></div><div dir="auto" style="color: #313131; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">resplendent with blemish and wart;</span></div><div dir="auto" style="color: #313131; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">as for me, I wear clean clothes,</span></div><div dir="auto" style="color: #313131; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">some torn and some not</span></div><div dir="auto" style="color: #313131; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">in adoration of preferred comforts</span></div><div dir="auto" style="color: #313131; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">for I have no eyes </span></div><div dir="auto" style="color: #313131; font-family: -apple-system, "Helvetica Neue"; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: times;">to see eyes that will not see. </span><br /></span></div>Malinda Wordshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17700355635566651088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859358771571299932.post-13958001238924024562022-09-29T13:23:00.001+05:302022-09-29T13:23:17.858+05:30The ways of the lotus<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigitU3Zq_yHArk8m1JWS1D-d6Uf0H6wRjREEE1hIHr6Ua8VEUjt9cdgkdlRzA9ZFTwUgkrqcpaKvDY7Wn9vu8e6NFapQQhk2W2zxutK62GO-FkkB5exQdthIhC5rw38PzIu0Qkt7uwAyycqRIAbynESaMX8wj-fnvRyxzfWf-umdw2VyPCoJx2R7iZ/s3508/stamps(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3508" data-original-width="968" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigitU3Zq_yHArk8m1JWS1D-d6Uf0H6wRjREEE1hIHr6Ua8VEUjt9cdgkdlRzA9ZFTwUgkrqcpaKvDY7Wn9vu8e6NFapQQhk2W2zxutK62GO-FkkB5exQdthIhC5rw38PzIu0Qkt7uwAyycqRIAbynESaMX8wj-fnvRyxzfWf-umdw2VyPCoJx2R7iZ/w110-h400/stamps(1).jpg" width="110" /></a></div>Trope and symbol<br />rises now and now reclines<br />in the currency of power<br />and yet so non-aligned,<br />bloomage of an artist’s imagination<br />watered by histories <br />and preferred extrapolation —<br />the unpaid stamp-duty <br />of commissioned omission<br />and republics squandered;<br />pavements meanwhile <br />agitate for compensation<br />speak of narratives obscured <br />the footnoted stories of the submerged <br />the roots that sifted soil <br />picked nutrients <br />made for fragrance and texture <br />and reed songs wrecked<br />by excessive love<br />equal to hatreds unresolved;<br />and as for the lotus<br />through abstraction and misrepresentation<br />away from metropole and galleried effusion<br />it rises, the lotus does <br />as it has, as it must,<br />again and again. <br /> <br />Malinda Wordshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17700355635566651088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859358771571299932.post-13082021598027030032022-09-29T11:48:00.001+05:302022-09-29T11:49:25.863+05:30 To my Kolombian lover<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimaBAkfu7P97F2AjyYQVh7UU9mC6zAiISNPBgY0oVhzd7d5pbx4_ddZeoHqq1qJOdrEmyN7kjzQvKuGUn4UtAZjOFDMOmZ4HsGKk-9ELfYLLJzGj9gnJ5XsV-rpP29lp1qIz7bsaN8Fh-rda7VFL-VLss9XnY6cQDCfy67_G3EzPMYrlYvxJ52_Hhc/s512/woman.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="512" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimaBAkfu7P97F2AjyYQVh7UU9mC6zAiISNPBgY0oVhzd7d5pbx4_ddZeoHqq1qJOdrEmyN7kjzQvKuGUn4UtAZjOFDMOmZ4HsGKk-9ELfYLLJzGj9gnJ5XsV-rpP29lp1qIz7bsaN8Fh-rda7VFL-VLss9XnY6cQDCfy67_G3EzPMYrlYvxJ52_Hhc/w200-h200/woman.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><p>Surreal and amazing is this sunset<br />the moonrise and the dawn<br />dressed as they are <br />in the colors of your radiance<br />the radicalism you had <br />for so long hidden from me<br /><br /><br />And as you sing love songs<br />of tomorrows and tomorrows<br />the fragrance of roses <br />having wafted over barricades<br />and perfumed Parliament <br />your voice is a garden of love<br />whose petals were until now unknown<br /><br />Your Sri Lankan flag flutters <br />in defiance and hope<br />and makes me tremble<br />putting to shame your fingers<br />gaze and words<br />as they caressed my heart<br />all these years of knowing and loving<br /><br />And I remember those other times,<br />not too long ago,<br />when you spoke of symbol and trope<br />and with fine ideological blade deconstructed,<br />skinned a lion, blunted a sword<br />mixed colors so ratios were blurred<br />and in the name of 'Sri Lanka'<br />you assigned to each religion a single vote<br />and a single vote too to each ethnic group<br /><br />And I remember those other times,<br />again not too long ago<br />when selling off national assets<br />as per Bretton Woods diktat<br />went unnoticed<br />'countries are markets,<br />boundaries meaningless' <br />so the economists said<br />and you, my love,<br />in the wisdom acquired<br />from geographies and coffee shops<br />where ladies and gentlemen <br />so refined with classical western culture<br />civlized by the Greek and the Romans<br />quoted Keats, Shakespeare and Wordsworth <br />and sometimes even Marx, Althusser, Lacan and Gramsci<br />you, my darling,<br />were not perturbed,<br />but that was then,<br />way back then. <br /><br />Countries are markets and toys<br />histories irrelevant, heritage too<br />except of course the homeland discourse <br />when the doctrine of unboundedness was shelved<br />to accomodate the carving of a map<br />to placate a thug<br /><br />The flag is now wrapped around your waist<br />what a garment, what a lovely sight<br />never have you looked this beautiful, my love<br /><br />'system-change, system-change,' the slogan screams,<br />and I applaud, eyes shining, voice breaking,<br />remembering all those years and even yesterday<br />of badmouthing individual or party,<br />blaming politician and policy <br />but holding in reverence, never touching <br />'the system'<br /><br />The system was and is invisible<br />but not unidentifiable, as you now know<br />and when we send it home, so to speak,<br />out will go capitalism<br />out too the IMF option,<br />out will go exploitation<br />out will go the neoliberalist lie <br />out will go privilege <br />out too the lifestyles <br />that system rewarded you with<br />yes, with tax-breaks and easy-paths <br />to certificate, profession and career <br />and Colombo will be swept over by the rabble<br />the baiyas and godayas and others outdated <br />the uncivilized riff-raff providing sneer-content<br />for Puswedilla and his ancestors <br /><br />My dearest, the road to Tomorrow<br />is not a superhighway, this you know,<br />there will be tear-gas, water-cannons and baton-charges<br />there will be arrests and detention,<br />perhaps torture and death<br /><br />I hope not, sweetheart<br />if the long march against all tyrannies <br />and not those comfortably selected <br />takes you to unhappy places, <br />the barricades or a police cell<br />if you are shackled in some K-point<br />the torture-death chambers <br />that mimic the political architecture of the late eighties<br />you might find people unlike any you've seen before<br />people whose body-odour and crude-words<br />are signatures of class <br />identifiers that locate them <br />and of course you,<br />whispering 'this is what the system is all about comrade'<br /><br />They might ask about police brutality<br />'Lasantha, Lasantha Wickramatunga'<br />I am sure you won't forget that name,<br />but you would also enumerate thus:<br />'Manjula Asanka and Raseen Chintaka of Boossa,<br />Appuhamuge Edward of Hunumulla,<br />Magoda Pathirage Hema Vipul<br />Sathasivam Madism of Karadiyanaru,<br />Manjula Prabath Wijewardena, Mawanella,<br />Chadik Syman Wickramarachchi, Peliyagoda<br />Sunanda Dias, Gampaha<br />Nadaraja Karan and Pavun Raj Sulakshan,<br />Sumith Prasanna Munasinghe, Embilipitiya.'<br /><br />'From 88-89?' they might ask,<br />but you can tell them,<br />'no, they belong to Yahapalanaya times'<br /><br />And then they'll ask, <br />'How about 88-89 sahodariya,<br />do you know who died?'<br />'Why,' you would reply, 'Richard, Richard De Soyza!'<br />But before they can interject, you would add<br />'And not just him<br />for there was Ranjithan Gunaratnam,<br />indeed just one Richard there were 60,000 Ranjithans.'<br /><br />For now you see,<br />and now you know<br />and thus we grow,<br />you and I<br />and all of us,<br />through innocence and ignorance<br />arrogance and conviction,<br />from darkness to light<br />slumber to wakefulness<br />selectivity to the overall<br />beyond comforts and comfort zones<br />in the necessary radicalization<br />that leaves far behind <br />precipitating factors <br />and misbegotten rewards,<br />the yield of class and class privilege<br /><br />Surreal and amazing is this sunset<br />the moonrise and the dawn,<br />dressed as they are <br />in the colors of your radiance<br />the radicalism you had <br />for so long hidden from me<br />or which I never had eyes to see,<br />but now you see <br />and I do too<br />and that all the difference makes.</p>Malinda Wordshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17700355635566651088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859358771571299932.post-53681312215290820912022-07-29T21:04:00.001+05:302022-07-29T21:04:21.455+05:30 ස්වර්ණවන්නියේ සයිමන් <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqswx503q2_ldIMvc-UnTRK2aeYnpzat82iWLiU7KVPdVbMJyhEuhicZbeqYkOpGZJy4eSB8JUArq4wcl6WmtppZc9k2Bo3j-Cj-LJG08gWcW6YyvqZzz0ndhUzz6U5V-UMI2Z7mN9hBSuz-taD5xXDoczZMtUhv9Ahg603KB7hzIh2CplXpOU0WfU/s500/simon%20last.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqswx503q2_ldIMvc-UnTRK2aeYnpzat82iWLiU7KVPdVbMJyhEuhicZbeqYkOpGZJy4eSB8JUArq4wcl6WmtppZc9k2Bo3j-Cj-LJG08gWcW6YyvqZzz0ndhUzz6U5V-UMI2Z7mN9hBSuz-taD5xXDoczZMtUhv9Ahg603KB7hzIh2CplXpOU0WfU/w200-h200/simon%20last.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br /><p><br /><br /> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>එසේ සිදුවිය එය,<br />සයිමන්<br />වන්නි අම්මාගේ<br />තන් පුඩු තොලගාමින්<br />කැඳවුයේ සාරයයි මහා පොළොවේ<br />සභ්යත්වයන් පෙරළා<br />ජීවිතයේ පෙළයි නෙළුවේ<br />දඩයක්කරුවන් මෙන්ම බෝධිසත්වයන් ගැනද<br />යුක්තියේ රිසිවරුද<br />රිසිවරයන්ගේ අතපසුවීමද<br />දේශපාලනයද කවියද<br />පැවැත්ම සහ චලනයද<br />අපහාසයද ලක්වූවන්ද එයට<br />උරා බිව් ඔහු<br />මෙසේද සටහන් කළේය:<br />'වසලයාද බ්රාහ්මණයාද ඔබමැයි --<br />එබැවින් රිසි සේ ජීවත්වනු මැන<br />ස්වර්ණවන්නියේද සිදාදියේද,<br />අපැහැදිලි මෙන්ම පැටලුනු නිවෙස් තුල --<br />අසඩක් නොවේය මම.'</p>Malinda Wordshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17700355635566651088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859358771571299932.post-64867531774957830762022-07-29T20:59:00.000+05:302022-07-29T20:59:11.443+05:30 මා තනිව සිටියදී <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj17RCl4_bGIisb_hbFgPZa-0zHhhmkmBvvqqiaMmQG_HddtMjCCtyAg3VoU8SYLqHdKrZSYx7ZJOxME9oAjvSycqh0PFIycXddunqjtMeV3Vvn51YtHWZUFPAb4VTJs406YZK2PytyiKvMbeis2P1G_7wMzaRg2OqBnJGoWIsidSPUt6ZcpuPafJAA/s1200/sybil%20poem.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="1200" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj17RCl4_bGIisb_hbFgPZa-0zHhhmkmBvvqqiaMmQG_HddtMjCCtyAg3VoU8SYLqHdKrZSYx7ZJOxME9oAjvSycqh0PFIycXddunqjtMeV3Vvn51YtHWZUFPAb4VTJs406YZK2PytyiKvMbeis2P1G_7wMzaRg2OqBnJGoWIsidSPUt6ZcpuPafJAA/s320/sybil%20poem.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /><br /> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>"මා තනිව සිටියදී මම මගේම මිතුරිය වෙමි" -- සිබිල් වෙත්තසිංහ <br /><br />මා තනිව සිටියදී <br />කුඩා දැරියක් <br />නියරක් දිගේ දිව විත් <br />ඇලක් තරණය කොට <br />දෑතේ එල්ලී <br />සෙල්ලම් ගෙවල් සහ පුච්චපු කොස් ඇට වලින්ම සැදුනු <br />තැඹිලි-දවස් වෙත කැඳවන්නී <br /><br />තනිව සිටියදී <br />යුගයෙන් යුගයට යමි <br />කිසිදා මහළු නොවන දෑස් සොයමි <br />අත්තම්මාගේ ආදරය ද <br />අම්මාගේ ඔවදන් ද නෙලා ගනිමි <br />මැසිවිලි සහ කඳුළු අවසන <br />දැවටෙමි අහල පහළ <br />ඔවුන් ගේ දොර වැඩ වල <br />මා ඔවුන්ගේ ආරක්ෂිත දෑස් තුල <br /><br />තනිව සිටියදී මා <br />විදෙස් බල පත්රය වීසි කරමි කැළණි ගඟට,<br />හංවැල්ලෙන් ගුවන් ගත වෙමි <br />එකතු වෙමි උද්ඝෝෂණ, රැස්වීම් සහ පාගමන් වලට <br />තේ කඩවල අල්ලාප සල්ලාප අතර <br />ඈත අතීතයෙන් එන අනාගතයට උරුම <br />ආදරවන්තයින්, ආදරය සහ රාගය <br />පිරිමදිමි, සිත්තම් කරමි <br /> <br />තනිව සිටියදී මා <br />දොලගලක් වෙමි පෙරළෙන <br />පාපැදියක දම්වැලෙන් ඝර්ෂණය සොයා ගනිමි <br />මෙතෙක් නොදුටු <br />රවී-ක්ෂිතිජ රංගන <br />රඟදක්වන තෙක් <br />ඉවසා සිටිමි.</p>Malinda Wordshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17700355635566651088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859358771571299932.post-37576918345442081652022-07-29T20:52:00.002+05:302022-07-29T20:52:29.526+05:30ඔබේ ඇද කුද<p><br />හිස් කැටපතක් සහ ඔබගේ විනාසකාරී ගති පැවතුම්<br />ඇතොත් එකිනෙක මුණ ගැසෙන මොහොතක්<br />ඇරඹෙනු ඇත එතැනින් නිර්මාණකරණය<br />එයම වේ කැටයම ද කලාවද<br /><br />පුරුදු වන්නට මැස්ම<br />ඇවැසිය ඉරුණු රෙදිකඩක්<br />ඇඳුම් මසන්නා ට<br />යළි යළිත් කැපිය යුතු වෙය<br />රුක් කඳ<br />ඉස්තරම් වඩු කම් පිණිස<br /><br />ඇවැසිය බිඳුණු අස්ථියක්<br />වෙදකම් පිණිස වෙදදුරුට<br />නැගෙනු වස් කිත් යසස්<br />ඇවසිය ඔබේ නෙක ඇද කුද<br /><br />-- ජලාල්උද්දින් රූමි<br />(පරිවර්තනය:මාලින්ද සෙනෙවිරත්න. සංස්කරණය: සුනන්ද කරුණාරත්න)<br /><br /></p>Malinda Wordshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17700355635566651088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859358771571299932.post-20054655609764873642022-07-29T20:45:00.000+05:302022-07-29T20:45:29.163+05:30 අරගලයේ ඝනකම්<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggkIFpu-LeUVsfp6pze3wTJwLagVSDXZl7yUhS6BiuOiqfUe_Q6oAvuyJ8f__BjZBWmh50LWvoJH0TBoN8Vp8xfSzHUKNqFZhmjuGrHK4AGmIVDGYC4bB1wPriXFWL44AuDg7NedO4KesMnkTXmU3QAJZtQGTFrr20NpxEB1aKAqiLmz60MAw2bQwI/s1280/arson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggkIFpu-LeUVsfp6pze3wTJwLagVSDXZl7yUhS6BiuOiqfUe_Q6oAvuyJ8f__BjZBWmh50LWvoJH0TBoN8Vp8xfSzHUKNqFZhmjuGrHK4AGmIVDGYC4bB1wPriXFWL44AuDg7NedO4KesMnkTXmU3QAJZtQGTFrr20NpxEB1aKAqiLmz60MAw2bQwI/s320/arson.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>ආදරයෙන්ම පිරවූ බඳුනකි<br />වෛරයේ හලාහල විස බිඳු<br />එකතු වූයේ පසුවයි<br />ඒ ආදරණීය අරගලකරුවන්ද<br />ආදර වේශයෙන් ආ වෛරක්කාරයන් ද<br />සතුරා ද මිතුරා ද<br />මිතුරු වෙසින් ආ සතුරා ද<br />නොදනිමි<br />නොඅසමි<br />වෛරය ආදරයෙන් වෙලා ගත්තේ<br />ආදරයයි<br />ආදරයද ආදරයෙන් සිප ගත්තේ වෛරයයි<br />දියරයේ පැහැය වෙනස් වී ඇත<br />එහි සුවඳ ගිලිහී ගොසිනි<br />ආදරයද<br />වෛරයද<br />ආදරයේ නාමයෙන් වෛරයද<br />අමුවෙන්ම බඳුනට එකතු වේ<br />වඩා ගණකම් ආදරයද <br />වඩා ඝනකම් වෛරය ද<br />නොදනිමි!<br />නොඅසමි!</p><p>[ඇද කුද පෙන්වා දී වඩා සුමට ලෙස සංස්කරණය කළ මා මිත්ර සුනන්ද කරුණාරත්නට කෘතඥ වෙමි] <br /></p><p> </p>Malinda Wordshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17700355635566651088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859358771571299932.post-6071990347458709682022-06-20T09:15:00.002+05:302022-06-20T09:15:22.201+05:30Simon of the Swarnavanni<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUeaSSm0HVOvam2sD_wyO8tQxUA9ViGUfM0MElywqtX1tWBdYIuLI4pU8Ir_FreQXqkF6glG3KnZiHyByEFOkdwt3FtupMTs2f4f4WVXhGPGWqXCoHQAD9A-cgKA5Q9cfZ9zDjeRN_HkoLT2gEg7ElCl3OtjV-icsdvTkz_5Jt96oc1Vz4eqWsq9ls/s264/SImon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="191" data-original-width="264" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUeaSSm0HVOvam2sD_wyO8tQxUA9ViGUfM0MElywqtX1tWBdYIuLI4pU8Ir_FreQXqkF6glG3KnZiHyByEFOkdwt3FtupMTs2f4f4WVXhGPGWqXCoHQAD9A-cgKA5Q9cfZ9zDjeRN_HkoLT2gEg7ElCl3OtjV-icsdvTkz_5Jt96oc1Vz4eqWsq9ls/s1600/SImon.jpg" width="264" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div>And so it came to pass,</div><div>Simon, his lips fastened <br /></div><div>on Vanni Amma's teat</div><div>drank long and deep </div><div>drew from the breast of the land</div><div>stories matured</div><div>in civilizational turn <br /></div><div>of hunters and the hunted,</div><div>of judicial wisdom and error</div><div>the politics and poetics</div><div>of being and becoming,</div><div>insults and the insulted</div><div>humiliation and the humiliating</div><div>and with so many words said thus:</div><div>'thou art hunter, thou art <i>bodistva</i></div><div><i>vasala </i>and<i> brahmana --</i></div><div>live as you will</div><div>in the Swarnavanni and <i>sidadiya</i></div><div>in unclear and intertwined residency -- <br /></div><div>I do not judge nor comment.'</div><div><br /></div><div>[Read also, '<a href="https://malindapoetry.blogspot.com/2011/12/for-simon.html?m=0">For Simon'</a>]<br /></div>Malinda Wordshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17700355635566651088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859358771571299932.post-64005647190614234312021-10-10T10:08:00.002+05:302021-10-10T10:26:09.799+05:30Thaji<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3iSmkayqme2LobHu-Q26Wz1YGhmTm4jVjFl3NJQY5wM2GoUaGLWGmny7jM3fCUnc5JTPT2XRnNh960iqvCBfIkABEfL_L09vlOEcszJi0LvJX0RRUXxWSE8O2PM15i12APiSblcR48_w/s1538/Thaji.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1538" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3iSmkayqme2LobHu-Q26Wz1YGhmTm4jVjFl3NJQY5wM2GoUaGLWGmny7jM3fCUnc5JTPT2XRnNh960iqvCBfIkABEfL_L09vlOEcszJi0LvJX0RRUXxWSE8O2PM15i12APiSblcR48_w/s320/Thaji.jpeg" width="225" /></a></div><br /><p><br /><br /><br /> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>And one day<br />when applause has died <br />and the delighted have burdened <br />tired streets with leaden feet,<br />when wings imagined are recognised <br />when the earth seems too small a platform <br />when you’ve surprised the sun,<br />then, in a mirror made of a Tuesday <br />or a month erroneously erased, <br />every dance choreographed <br />and those yet unborn<br />will in suspended disbelief confess<br />‘We were in your eyes blueprinted.’</p><p> </p><p>[Pic by Prishan Pandithage] <br /></p>Malinda Wordshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17700355635566651088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859358771571299932.post-6554219075327336612021-07-23T09:59:00.004+05:302021-07-23T09:59:55.258+05:30This teenaged daughter...<p>Verse-hair braided with fairy lights<br />crafted nonchalance dripping <br />in the pitter-patter of footfall<br />accidental and deliberate —<br />I look up<br />there’s the assured light <br />from the geometry of windows<br />but she will put the staircase to work <br />with or without warning<br />as I may have too<br />in her fairytale days <br />and my absent years. <br /></p>Malinda Wordshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17700355635566651088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859358771571299932.post-62667037178172542222021-07-23T09:58:00.003+05:302021-07-23T09:58:32.125+05:30For M, again<p>There’s something citric about you<br />something king-coconutty too<br />flavors and colors<br />were all the fragrance there was —<br />cuts through enormities <br />grinds to a fine powder <br />time’s voluminous harvest<br />calls forth a history <br />or just a word<br />such as what swirled around tongues<br />rested delicately on lips <br />so fragile <br />not even a thousands kisses <br />could displace.</p>Malinda Wordshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17700355635566651088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859358771571299932.post-7642042947060057402021-07-23T09:56:00.002+05:302021-07-23T09:56:54.616+05:30Agrarian Song<p>At the edge of a feeder-canal <br />the ghosts of <i>mee</i> trees felled long ago stood<br />and as though nudged by an <i>andaheraya </i><br />remembered by one and all at once<br />released rustling melodies <br />which duly reincarnated <br />as bleeding fingertips;<br />delicately lifted the paddy field <br />rolled it all the way to the tree line <br />heaved up upon a collective shoulder <br />and to the heartbeat of a resilient land <br />marched straight into the pages of tomorrow —<br />such things are possible on wind-shredded mornings<br />bringing news of resurrected optimism. <br /></p>Malinda Wordshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17700355635566651088noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859358771571299932.post-86961868196838106842021-07-15T01:12:00.002+05:302021-07-15T01:12:16.058+05:30Mitsical Ways<p>So she wakes me at 3 o'clock<br />wakes me to coffee and home<br />wakes me again a little later<br />and the coffee's still warm<br />strays from her universe<br />with word and grace<br />dressed as bandit or clown --<br />I notice all<br />and so much more<br />in this domesticity unanticipated<br />but welcomed like a child<br />walking into fairy tale anthologies.</p>Malinda Wordshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17700355635566651088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859358771571299932.post-62786362291477832842021-07-15T01:01:00.004+05:302021-07-15T01:03:58.919+05:30Taking care<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMGQ5vzhDyVIFeaAX3ElQEDdJBkDNZ9y06n0IbKJm_jtIPfbwDQrQFBJodJevP0SzIGgMK7L226hdMxHGc6BRy1hWvKxdXwKhgq-YoqDicCMu6cCYYIn46T9QJotIlU-cEBXwaV3dWTkM/s960/Dayadi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="720" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMGQ5vzhDyVIFeaAX3ElQEDdJBkDNZ9y06n0IbKJm_jtIPfbwDQrQFBJodJevP0SzIGgMK7L226hdMxHGc6BRy1hWvKxdXwKhgq-YoqDicCMu6cCYYIn46T9QJotIlU-cEBXwaV3dWTkM/s320/Dayadi.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Times of confidences come to me <br />as gardens from another planet<br />unnamed but clearly mapped <br />with libraries and books<br />songs and stories that would at will <br />break into flavors that soothed our tongues<br />and cured it of the harsh-word curse.<br /><br />The claims of seniority and equality of status<br />length of knowing and love, <br />of poetry, places, phases and passion <br />did not count;<br />I belonged to her, through and through<br />then and forever, non-negotiable. <br /><br />But we slipped, she and I <br />into orbits that seldom crossed paths <br />and were shrugged off <br />in the nonchalance of knowing<br />or things more pressing.<br /><br />Old words torment the vacancies <br />threadbare histories nibble <br />and the edges of memory wince <br />in the inevitability of this time.<br /><br />And then skipping through a paddy field<br />uncluttering doubts with fairytale swish<br />she sprinkles the universe <br />with an eau de cologne smile. <br /><br />She has always taken care<br />to take care of me. </p>Malinda Wordshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17700355635566651088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859358771571299932.post-5897668261636767392021-07-15T00:54:00.004+05:302021-07-15T00:54:34.220+05:30Carnival of the vague<p>Raindrops wearing bird-song shoes<br />intermittently measured cobblestone byways,<br />a ghost train whistled to a ship without sailor —<br />the wind told the ghost guard ‘undeliverable’<br />and the ghost engine driver told the railway track<br />‘we know better, don’t we?’<br />An encyclopedia opened to an empty page,<br />poetry flew from a television screen,<br />the turmeric turned in silence in accommodating soils,<br />burnt out matchsticks decided to set up camp <br />and a caterpillar in a faltering voice asked <br />‘can I stay in your plantain peel tent until the night is done?’<br />A lipstick stain danced around the rim of a glass<br />a gaze turned red wine into white<br />and memory-blush made it crimson, by and by;<br />some words were probably said, but I am not sure<br />for there is no stall for convictions<br />in the carnival of the vague.</p>Malinda Wordshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17700355635566651088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859358771571299932.post-61057701788712425522020-04-21T10:39:00.000+05:302020-04-21T10:39:04.964+05:30Chiseler and chiseled <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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In chiseling meditation<br />the artist etched <br />lines and grooves<br />and the anticipated work<br />of wind, water and time,<br />so into rock face <br />and away from memory<br />he could duly disappear<br />and watch eyes countless<br />being glazed by image <br />and the master’s word </div>
Malinda Wordshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17700355635566651088noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859358771571299932.post-45234281340602747762020-04-21T10:36:00.002+05:302020-04-21T10:36:44.434+05:30Wonderment <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
[for Mithsandi]<br /><br />What magic wand do you wave<br />when with color and line and whiteness<br />tremendous distances you collapse<br />to cast in stone your heart?<br /><br />Among the thousand and one<br />how is time for caress found<br />and how with infrequent and brief touch <br />are spells cast on cat, on dog, on me? <br /><br />Is it star dust gathered and sifted <br />that glance and nonchalance decorate <br />as you flit from planet to planet <br />in snap-fingered nimbleness?<br /><br />And how without flourish <br />or even painstaking dissolution<br />do you from vocabularies silence distill<br />and nevertheless so much say?<br /></div>
Malinda Wordshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17700355635566651088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859358771571299932.post-80948367712661081572020-04-21T10:35:00.001+05:302020-04-21T10:35:50.625+05:30Take care<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
[for Dayadi]<br /><br />Times of confidences come to me <br />as gardens from another planet<br />unnamed but clearly mapped <br />with libraries and books<br />songs and stories that would at will <br />break into flavors that soothed our tongues<br />and cured it of the harsh-word curse.<br /><br />The claims of seniority and equality of status<br />length of knowing and love, <br />of poetry, places, phases and passion <br />did not count;<br />I belonged to her, through and through<br />then and forever, non-negotiable. <br /><br />But we slipped, she and I <br />into orbits that seldom intersected<br />and were shrugged off <br />in the nonchalance of knowing<br />or things more pressing.<br /><br />Old words torment the vacancies <br />threadbare histories nibble <br />and the edges of memory wince <br />in the inevitability of this time.<br /><br />And then skipping through a paddy field<br />uncluttering doubts with fairy tale swish<br />she sprinkles the universe <br />with an eau de cologne smile. <br /><br />She takes care to take care. </div>
Malinda Wordshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17700355635566651088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859358771571299932.post-70824215876161227442020-04-20T22:11:00.002+05:302020-04-20T22:11:57.538+05:30අක්බාර් පාලම <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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පරපුරෙන් පරපුරට පොදු වූ <br />එනමුත් අද්විතීය යැයි සිතන <br />ආදරය, අනාදරය <br />රැවටිල්ල පැටලිල්ල <br />හොඳට දන්නා අක්බාර් පාලම <br />දෙඩවුයේ නැත මා සමග;<br />එදා මෙන් අදත් එලෙසම නිහඬව <br />ඓතිහාසික නිශ්චිත කම <br />සහ පැවැත්මේ තර්කය මතම <br />දැඩිව, දැඩිවම සිටියා පමණි --<br />කෙඳිරිල්ලක්, හුස්මක්, සුගන්ධයක් ලෙස <br />හිරු කිරණ, මුරකාවල් සහ උකුසු ඇස් අතරින් <br />වැළඳ ගැනීම සහ දියවීම වෙත <br />පිය නගන්නට ඇයට.</div>
Malinda Wordshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17700355635566651088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859358771571299932.post-80555910092110170852020-03-29T22:14:00.002+05:302020-03-29T22:14:13.555+05:30Last words?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The chime of a doubtful clock <br />a koha in off-season, off-note chirp <br />a harvest that eloped with the soil-poisoner<br />a reluctant child who won’t say her name —<br />the identity of the postman is unknown<br />but of utmost clarity will missive be:<br />‘he’s gone.’ </span></span></div>
Malinda Wordshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17700355635566651088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859358771571299932.post-38448843480373501462020-03-28T20:16:00.002+05:302020-03-28T20:16:28.101+05:30කවියෙකුගේ යුතුකම* <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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මේ සිකුරාදා උදෑසන </div>
සයුරට සවන් නොදෙන කෙනෙක් වේ නම්,<br />ගෙයක, කන්තෝරුවක, කම්හලක, ගැහැණියක<br />නැතිනම් වීදියක, පතලක, රුදුරු සිර කුටියක <br />ගුලි වී සිටී නම් යමෙකු<br />ඔහු වෙත පැමිණෙන්නෙමි <br />නොබලා, නොකියා කිසිවක් <br />විවර කරන්නෙමි දොර,<br />දෙදරුමක් ඇරඹෙනු ඇත එවිට <br />නොපැහැදිලි නමුත් නොනවතින,<br />දැවැන්ත වූ ඛණ්ඩයකින් හෙණයක <br />ග්රහලෝකයද පෙණකැටිද <br />සයුරේ ගොහොර ගංගා ද <br />අවදි වේ එවිට, <br />හිරු ද හනිකට කැළඹේ <br />එහි උප ඡායාව තුල,<br />මුහුදු තෙර හඬ නගයි, මියයයි,පවතියි. <br /> <br />ඉතින්, දෛවයේ කැඳවීමෙන් <br />මුහුදේ අන්දොනාවට සවන් දිය යුතුය <br />ඒ අවබෝධය තුලම රඳවා ගත යුතුය,<br />ඝන රළ බිඳුම විඳිමින්ම <br />නොබිඳෙන කෝවකට වත්කල යුතුයි,<br />එවිට, ඒ සිරකුටි කොතැනක තිබුනද <br />කොහේ සිට හෝ ග්රීෂ්මයේ අවලාද විඳින්නට සිදු වුවද,<br />මා පැමිණෙනු ඇත <br />මුරණ්ඩු රළ පහරක් සමගින්,<br />සරනු ඇත, කවුළු තුලින්,<br />මා වෙත යොමු වූ නේක නෙත් <br />අසනු ඇත: 'සයුර වෙත යන්නේ කෙසේද?'<br />එවිට කිසිවක් නොදොඩා ප්රසිද්ධ කරමි<br />දිය පහරේ තාරකා දෝංකාරය, <br />පෙණපිඬුවල මරවැල්ලෙහි බිඳුම, <br />හැකිළෙන ලවණයේ කුසුකුසුව, <br />වෙරළ තීරයේ මුහුදු විහඟුන්ගේ අළු පැහැති නද. <br /><br />ඉතින්, මා තුලින්, නිදහසද සයුරද <br />සිරකොට ඇති හදවතට <br />සපයනු ඇත පිළිතුරු<br />
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*Pablo Neruda's 'The Poet's Obligation' <br />
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Malinda Wordshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17700355635566651088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859358771571299932.post-31348511103795889212020-03-06T22:32:00.000+05:302020-03-06T22:32:12.676+05:30Synesthesia (for Tanya)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
There is music below freezing point,<br />in glacial heart and damnation<br />above and beyond the traditional homelands<br />of fireflies and satellites<br />tripping elegantly<br />over dismantled dimensions.<br />I am talking of melting here,<br />of body disappearing into cloud and harvest<br />starlight and smoke-ring<br />leaving behind question-trail and exclamation,<br />and in the splash-less slip of identity and union,<br />the vision of a glacier<br />from beneath its surface.<br />I am talking of an unravelling<br />of love's immemorial riddle<br />as colours<br />that slipped<br />from the underside of silence:<br />the flight of melody,<br />a perfumed root,<br />a knotted calendar,<br />genealogies made of amber<br />and a whisper that said 'you'<br />but was heard as 'I'.</div>
Malinda Wordshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17700355635566651088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859358771571299932.post-90483641671812868892019-07-31T21:30:00.000+05:302019-08-01T08:58:48.960+05:30For Aunty Jean <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />[a peradeniya kaviya] <br /><br /><br />A season of bloomage <br />colors that erase the shade<br />carpets that hide the shame <br />soft petal blades and<br />heart-cut histories <br />scripts that never made it <br />not to the Sarachchandra 'Wala'<br />not to the WUS 'Wala'<br />but slipped out of narratives <br /><br />Peradeniya is a nation <br />re-birthed every twenty years <br />and every single day --<br />speed it up and it's a dust storm <br />from ashes to ashes <br />passing over immutabilities <br /><br />Aunty Jean, now, <br />of Peradeniya <br />and yet, maker of that landscape <br />unknown to others <br />themselves creators, vandals and residents<br />she, <br />of earth curled in cinnamon <br />who played with received cartography <br />re-mapped the universities of belonging <br />she,<br />of word and the lives of things unnoticed <br />a fence, a boundary and other illusions<br />a cat, a growl and a plant forlorn <br />she,<br /><br />of grace, vitality and effusion <br />drenching gatherings with words and mirth <br />and wiping off the stains the careless splashed <br />she,<br />who decided she would be 16 forever<br />and at will and whim <br />pick 45, 23 or 79 <br />in her irrepressibility <br />would stay a curtain and detain the impatient<br />she,<br />who cannot leave <br /><br /><div>
For her, there will be flowers</div>
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full bouquets of metaphors carefully picked <br />music drawn from abandonment <br />from an unfolding story <br />a treetop, the glint in young eyes<br />the edge of wine-glass cut<br /><br />But for her <br />tonight<br />I've revisited Peradeniya<br />stitched together the exquisite <br />the most tender loves<br />silences that outdid shout </div>
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and other things indescribable;<br />for there's a story <br />lost in the folds </div>
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that never will be found. </div>
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Malinda Wordshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17700355635566651088noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859358771571299932.post-569290828532916102018-11-12T01:21:00.003+05:302018-11-12T01:21:41.331+05:30A love song of ten windows<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Lanil Kalubowila knew</span><span class="s1"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">he knew long before any of us did</span><span class="s1"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">he knew of blur and distinction</span><span class="s1"></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">the arbitrariness of definition</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">for he had reached and crossed<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">the boundaries of sanity, so defined</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and in the exhilaration of insight, advised:</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">‘Learn a language, for it is a window’</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and then he explained —</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">‘When you open the French <b>window</b></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">you can travel to and with Victor Hugo!’</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">He did not elaborate and needn’t have,</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">for Voltaire, Baudelaire and Camus</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and others whose names I did not know</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">announced their presence.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">And today, thinking of windows</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">I remember him and I know</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">as he probably did</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">that windows were not just languages;</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">they opened to histories and memories,</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">loves that have been and have been thus defined</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">loves that came and went<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and in their ins and out exclaimed,</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">‘No, that which I am named is not what I am!’</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">I sit in a room of innumerable screens and mirrors</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">windows open of themselves or appear to do so,</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">one thought and one or more open</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">while one or more get shut</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">but a singularity of unknown origin<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">deliver in the end a dark room</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">with a single open window</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and a strange magnetism forbids approach</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">but nevertheless permits light</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">soft and fragrant, whispering<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">‘it’s mine to give, I decide how much and when!”</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">So in that nondescript room</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">where ancient architectures shudder<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">in delight tempered with anxiousness,</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">sprawled on a camp cot<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">sweating out the seasonality of all things<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">naked to the elemental invasion of tenderness</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">I hear it:</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">the sound of <b>rain</b></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">speeding through tattered banners<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">shattering the glasses of propriety<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">burning, branding and polishing too</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">ridiculing the urgencies of desire,</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">first as ceremonial drum-roll</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and then as the battering rams<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">at the city gates:</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">‘I am the daughter of the sky<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">I can take or give life,</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">I can sweep away all</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and I can cleanse arteries and veins</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">clogged with doubt, disbelief and all notions of the impossible,</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">I can clear them out and let the blood flow</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">the purest there can be,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">born of and born for love<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">like nothing this world has known.’</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">It is the ultimate call</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">for the laying out of <b>desire</b></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">to be honest beyond any honesty</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">the world has ever known:</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">‘I desire, yes I do!</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">a presence that’s immediate<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">be it corporeal or otherwise,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">a caress made of touch or touch-me-not</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">an embrace of arms, an envelopment with gaze</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">the clasp of words with words</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and words then with meaning</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and meaning thereafter with fingertips</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">with lips and all the symphonies of flesh on flesh;</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">I desire the dance of give and the dance of take</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">the union of exchange burning into the burning ice</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">of sharing, the melting of all things</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">the unity of love,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">yes, I do desire!’</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">And then there was nothing</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">a house that was without walls</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">windows that had no window panes<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">a tent without canvas;</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">gone, all gone</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">an enclosure without boundaries<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">or markers that insisted, ‘this is “in” and that is “out”’</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and it was in that <b>transparent </b>matrix<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">that I first saw you,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">naturally as words</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">words and thoughts</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">thoughts and arrival</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">arrival and conversation</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">conversation and proximity</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">proximity and flame</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">flame and inferno</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">inferno and ash</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">ash to ash and dust to dust</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">the making of flesh<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and the poetry of transformation</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">the transformation of verse</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">into stories never told</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and the untold turning into the unspeakable,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">the silence (what else?) of love.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">In these landscapes</span><span class="s1"></span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">dotted with the sepulchral remains</span><span class="s1"></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">of unrequited love and the languages of insanity</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">in these deserts where mirage upon mirage<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">camouflaged the rare oasis</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">there were no stars to show the way</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">no maps or guides</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">just a <b>smile</b> that could mean anything</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">but was read thus:</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">‘explore me,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">for behind the humble poetry of lips</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">there could be a universe containing all</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">or a warmth, humble and yet empowered</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">to deliver the the only ‘all’ that counts!’</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">I saw a heart in the middle of the year 2018</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">I saw it as a mural, sketched with past and future</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">I read the words that weren’t written</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and I trembled for I knew, I knew, I knew</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">this was the insanity that made life worth living,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">the impossible that was burning a tattoo on my <b>heart</b></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">a legend that screamed</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">‘Possible! Possible! Possible!</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and then erased it all with a smile</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and in its place placed a single petal</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">of a flower I’ve never seen;</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">there was no burning and there was no ice</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">no volcanic ash, no glacial thrust<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">just a petal unknown to the world<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">something that might have said something I didn’t hear</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">something I didn’t understand,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">but something which I took to mean, simply,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">‘It is you and therefore it is us.’</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">That was the beginning of <b>dreams</b>,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">from that moment onwards<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><b>words</b> that had been misplaced and misaddressed<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">stirred in the missives of long and decrepit years</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">words swept out with the dust of loves that came apart</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">words congealed in lost archives<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">randomly arranged in unnamed shelves<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">words that had taken refuge in the temples of tenderness</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">hiding behind idols and the folds of curtains,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">words robbed by one and all,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">they returned,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and they arranged themselves at will</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">so I could give the poorest of gifts</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and indeed the only one I had to give.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">And I announced:</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">‘I am ready to die,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">I could die in the deepest ocean</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">crushed by waves and whipped by currents</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">but no, unnecessary is such force of strength<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">I can perish in lesser waters</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">too marginal to mark on a map,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">too <b>shallow</b> to drown a baby,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and yet deep enough for me’</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and that was my humble submission.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">A voice from a long time ago</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">returned as echo and warning</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">or perhaps invitation and challenge:</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">‘You are not you,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">not the you of these years,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">not the you who misread windows</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">not the you ignorant of insanity</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">not the you of sentencing and exile,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">you are now winged,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">you are no longer child of the earth</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">but the issue of soil and air,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">you are <b>eagle</b>,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">you are made to soar.’</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<br /></div>
Malinda Wordshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17700355635566651088noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859358771571299932.post-64362060080604069222018-11-06T08:13:00.001+05:302019-02-05T19:27:32.986+05:30The Ancient Testament on Revolution*<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div class="p1">
<span style="color: red; font-family: inherit;">GENESIS: 1-5</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: red; font-family: inherit;"> </span></div>
<div class="p1">
<div class="p2">
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Say if after me or say it when you wish</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">ayanna, aayanna, iyanna, eeyanna</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">or say A, B, C, D if that comes easy</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">sa-ri-ga-ma-pa-da-neeeee<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">or if it rolls easier on the tongue <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">do-re-me-fa-so-la-ti<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">It begins with right and wrong<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">good and evil, but not legal and illegal</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">for men and women make rules<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and men and women are frail</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">no, it’s not god-given</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">no, it’s not perfect and immutable</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Conscience doesn’t fall from the sky</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">but gathered from familiarity</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">it frames you and you’ll reframe by and by</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">but a good place to start</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and from there, in baby steps</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">that come as questions</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Awkward and sporadic ones,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">conundrums that exhaust:</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Do I condone or condemn?</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">What do I deny, what reaffirm?</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">At all costs or within budget?</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Where’s the limit? What is ‘limit’?</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">It’s about saying ‘no’<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">as the only way of saying ‘yes’</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">yes, ‘yes’ to right, though you maybe wrong</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">‘yes’ to good because you know no better</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">but ‘yes’ therefore to peace of mind</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and peaceful slumber at night.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="color: red; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: red; font-family: inherit;">GENESIS: 6-11</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It could begin anywhere, for the world is complex and vast </span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">but ‘why?’ or ‘why not?’ are common enough starters</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">WHY did it happen this way? WHY was it done that way?</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">WHY couldn’t it have happened otherwise?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">WHY couldn’t it have been done some other way?</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">It brings us to the key Q: Where does ‘Why?’ come from?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">A general notion of right and wrong</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">a specific wrong that shocks or calls for pause<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">an accident, an illness, misfortune unexpected<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">these are the easy prompters of ‘no’</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">they hurt, feed disbelief<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and make you say ‘dear god’</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and affirm, pray and die for the opposite.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">What agitates me, why do I take umbrage?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">There are a hundred who did not notice</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">there are a hundred who did not care,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">but I did, I care and care enough;</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">so why did I and why don’t they,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Are they blind or are they coy, did I ask myself?</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">‘For the common good, for humanity<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">for my children and the planet’s health,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">these things tug at heart, such things compel,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">not for me, not for me, not for me,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">one for all, for all or nothing,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">I swear by all that I hold dear!’</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Community and solidarity,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">things animate and inanimate</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">tangible and intangible, the future unattained<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">all that is good and wholesome</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">against all that is not:</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">a good place to be, let us make it clear.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">How did collective come to be privileged<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">which privileges are more dear and why, did you ask?</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">For words are easy, alibis easier still<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">justification the easiest thing on earth<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">once blood boils and decision made;</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">the tough one is this: but why, in the first place?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="color: red; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">GENESIS: 12-16</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">There are a million things to do</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and a million ways to do them</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">why did you pick ‘revolution’<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">why object when no one else would</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">why stand when it’s easier to sit</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">why not let sleeping dogs lie?</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Because it’s the right thing to do</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and because you gotta do the right thing, right?</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">It’s important to stand when everyone’s sitting</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">just so others know that standing is an option, right?</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Yes, that’s a justification and as good as any</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">but consider this as an even more compelling case:</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">We stand because we cannot sit any more</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">we stand because that’s the only way<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">we can earn the right to sit in peace one day</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">we stand not to show others how to stand</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">we stand whether the world appreciates or not</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">we stand because in standing we win the right to breathe</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">It is gut-reaction or is there time for any other reaction?</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">It is never predictable when the call could come</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and remember it could be a wrong number</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">it could be a trap, for Big Brother is a planner:</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Big Brother strategizes, purchases insurance</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Big Brother is careful, covers all bases</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Big Brother identifies pitfalls, thinks ahead and wants to know</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">who to purchase, who to neutralize, who to eliminate</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and sometimes needs the grist of rebellion<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">to keep the mills productive, did you know?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">This is why, the greatest revolutionaries often say</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">‘Read, study, understand’ for the Revolution is no tea party.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="color: red; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">GENESIS: 17-20</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">You’ve shouted, you’ve said it short and sweet,</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">you’ve stood witness, you’ve made a stand</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">in the very least to yourself whispered<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">‘this is wrong and this I do not condone,’</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">or ‘this is what gives meaning and morality</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">to me, now, and for always.’</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The powers that be in their visibility</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">processes that be in their subtle design</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">they’ve not, as is often the case, stopped,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">they’ve not said ‘you are right, we are wrong,’</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">they’ve not said ‘we erred and we shall offer redress.’</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">No, they’ve encountered objection and take note they will.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">What next, you might wonder (if they give you the time),</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">you’ll know soon enough and if it’s all quiet, be wary</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">they know when to do what and how, that they do;</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">threat-level they’ll assess, they will SWOT-analyze</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">silent they could be, but don’t be disarmed<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">for they know, usually, who to strike, when and how.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">There’s the termination-option, frequently employed<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">works in the corporates, works in other places too,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">‘quit or else,’ works for the ‘or else’ can intimidate;</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">they can say it and say it without saying it,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">cost-effectiveness is a subject they’ve mastered<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">they make examples so others (will not) follow, remember.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="color: red; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">GENESIS: 21-25</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">You can second-guess yourself, it’s quite alright</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">we know something, but we know little<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and we have to make do with what we have:</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">knowledge, material and people</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">the ability to read terrain and signs,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">assess threat and potential, seize the moment.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">You were born to live and it’s your choice</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">to fight or look away, to stand or sit, laugh or weep</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">you crawled before you walked, walked before you could tun</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">you were unsteady, fearful and assured and confident<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">you fell, hurt yourself, were filled with self-doubt<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">there must have been times when you had to ask,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">‘What’s it all about? Is it really worth it? Should I give up?’</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Well, that what revolution is all about, especially when it begins.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">A spark does not illuminate the way a bonfire does</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">lightening it not like stadium lights<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">sometimes the little thing is enough<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">most times it’s the first spark that counts</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">it’s that one tiny strike of objection<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">that can show pathways otherwise unseen</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">You may be small, a speck of dust,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">but that, they say, is a universe;<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">you may be innocent, but so too are children</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and purity of heart is a tender and potent arsenal<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">love and integrity will give poetry and thrust</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">they may not, don’t forget, tyranny overthrow.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">And yet, it all begins with love, poetry that gives the spark</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">a little something that whispers ‘are you okay with all this?’</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">that’s the little grain of sand, the little drop of water</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">for there’s an earth to reclaim, an ocean to cross<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">destinations are faraway but faraways are not unreachable<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">not if you can fly, and you can and you will</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">the first step is the hardest because you might not be able to stop.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="color: red; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">GENESIS: 26-30</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">So you’ve figured it all out now,</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">you know the why and the why not,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">you know it’s about who you are<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and who you should be<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and what you’d be if you declined</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and you’ve chosen to stand.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Have you asked, again,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">‘is this the only ill in this ill-conceived world,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">are there no other victims, but I</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">is it familiarity or proximity</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">the things that prick flesh</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">the things that stir mind from<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and suddenly yell, “this is wrong, so wrong!”?’</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Perhaps you’ve heard that line,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">‘injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere!”</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">It’s true, but it’s a half-truth which therefore is half a lie;</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">it means, in a way, ‘don’t settle for half-way measure,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">go for broke, it’s all or nothing.’ and that’s a lie</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">for in this world you can bite only as much as you can chew.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">And yet, it will not hurt to look around, to listen and breathe</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">for one learns from others and other battles also teach;</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">what were the terms of exploitation here,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">why was this battle won and why indeed was it not fought,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">did they assess marginal benefits against marginal costs</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and find it was a better bet to submit, to run so you can fight again?</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Did someone embrace the risk of one battle conceded leading to petrification</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">was the enemy too formidable, were there no friends with whom to stand?</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">What are the lessons of that defeat, why was that victory so brief</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">was it a half-chance that may have turned the fortunes on battlefield</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">what was there that is also here, what’s missing there that’s a factor here?</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">There’s a danger too, for if eye and mind stray too far, it could cost in the battle at hand. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="color: red; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">GENESIS: 31-35</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s a journey, then, this revolution business</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">there’s a beginning and there’s a destination<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">all mapped out in the heart and mind</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">with some sense of intangibles<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">some essentials for the road</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and full knowledge of hardships ahead</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">There would be some who might join</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">but among them, some would leave</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and who can tell, perhaps you’ll walk alone</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and that is the beginning of learning</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">not just about the fight at hand but all fights being fought<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">the insults and humiliation that’s as intimate as breathing</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Perhaps you’ll find that your wounds are benign</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">perhaps you’ll find that others have been fighting</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">the same fight that you fight and other will later fight</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">but in the vast flood plains of resistance<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">you’ll find the ruins of once resolute hearts<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">armies buried in unmarked graves, smothered with ash</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">And in that desolate country of defeat after defeat after defeat</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">there will nevertheless be blood streaked petals</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">that have transformed themselves into lyrical resistance<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">there will be an old man and a child and other mad juxtapositions</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">a soldier who discovered at the point of cruelty a class-root</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">brotherhoods and sisterhoods putting forth buds in lost deserts</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">What of my quarrel now, you might ask yourself</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">for there will be a hundred reasons to abandon all</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">a hundred reasons to embrace the larger fight, the greater enemy</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">but in such moments of deep reflection and self-doubt</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">remember that root is root and yours is no less precious</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">located though it is in a vast subterranean matrix of entanglement.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="color: red; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">GENESIS: 36-40</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">So what face did the system wear when it frightened you first</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">was it a man or a woman and did you think it was a beast?</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Did it come with a name, a designation or a disarming smile</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">did you notice the eyes and wonder ‘is this the real thing?’</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">did it nudge or shove, stare you down or dismiss with an insult?</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">It is never easy to tell, for the devil has many a cloak<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">he comes as foe and at times as acquaintance or even friend</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">he is now by your side, calmly encouraging<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and later spurs you on towards precipice<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and in the end forces you to consider the vexed question:</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">“who is the devil and who am I?’</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">At the beginning it’s the outer layer that prompts</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">it is what seems or is apparent that raises ire</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">at the beginning there’s a red flag and a bull<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">a face, a row of faces, the wrong-doing and the wrong</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">at the beginning there’s a multitude in your head</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">at the beginning, there could even be just that single voice,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">something, someone, saying ‘you cannot be at peace.’</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">But things that begin, will flourish, will perish and decay</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">one thought is replaced by another, a fallen enemy will rise</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">a dead enemy will be reborn, there’s be other names<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">sweeter sounds that cut mercilessly as before<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and in that orchestra of noise we have reason to believe</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">it is not unnatural for cacophony and symphony to switch</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">By and by things the shapeless takes shape</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">by and by the unnamed names itself</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">by and by we move beyond name to system and buttress</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">by and by we realize dimensions of tyranny<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">by and by we realize dimension of resistance</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">by and by we all things solid will melt into air and we face ourselves.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: red;">GENESIS: 41-45</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s been a different kind of day, a moment unexpected —</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">something hit you between the eyes did it now?</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Or was it that something utterly soft touched heart</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">touched with such tenderness that you trembled?</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">It has been a different day, that’s all that matters for now</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and that which is out of the ordinary demands pause.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Let us pause, my children, let us pause brothers and sisters</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">let us pause, friends, citizens and countrymen</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">let us stop and let us listen, let us see, let us feel</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">for we’ve had eyes that looked but didn’t see</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">fingers that touched but did not feel</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">we’ve had ears that did not hear but not for want of listening.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Let us walk now along untravelled pathways</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">cast glance at that which we are conditioned to shun</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">let us not stop at stop signs, let red lights not deter</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">let us instead stop when we are nudged or pushed</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">let us flip the script of being, of seeing, hearing<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and touching</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">let us think the unthinkable, touch the touch-me-nots.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">There are households ablaze though you won’t see a flame</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">there are callouses growing as I write, but they don’t announce</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">‘Here I am, come see the trace that life imprints on hands!’</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Extraction is sanitized in many ways, and villainy too</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">but the political economy of such things are not invisible</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">it’s there in the vacancy of eyes and the skin-burn of sufferance.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Where did you read about injustice and deceit</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">where of insult and humiliation, the blaming of victims</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">who said it first, do you remember and did you ask</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">‘now why was it said at this time by this person?’</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Did you rush out of doors to witness oppression<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and did you see that what was announced was an iceberg tip?</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: red;">GENESIS: 46-50</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Stop! Ask again, ‘where did it all begin? When did it all begin?’</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">You didn’t start the fire but then again, perhaps you did</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">but then again, with respect to flame, it can as you know</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">a forest fire ignite or the universe illuminate</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">do not be hard on yourself, for hardness you will know</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">the pain may take form and intensity unanticipated.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">But where did it begin and how and when, you may ask:</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">there’s an arrow embedded in flesh, this you know,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">it would be good to know the owner of the bow</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and the safe territories from whence it was sent<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">but the flesh burns, the poison works, and at some point</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">so the sages say, it is best to treat the wound.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">But where did it begin and when, you’ll ask again:</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">from which window was the first arrow shot</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">who was it that set fire to the thicket out of fear or delight<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">why do things have to burn, why must heart poison receive</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">what that the only flame, and is it fire and arrow alone that burn</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">each arrow is a thousand questions and they have to be answered.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">But there did it begin and when, you’ll ask again:</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">there will be answers, and some will come dressed as question</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">there will be further question too, this time as answers</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">so consider them all, for revolution is both, an answer and a question</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">a conversation and at times a monologue, in a crowd or in solitude</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">life is not kind, old questions are reborn, like revolution and love.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">But where did it begin and when, you’ll ask again:</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">it was born, if you must know, with a drop of poetry</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">a line, a song, an embroidery and a tourniquet<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">a bolt of lightening that illuminated but for a moment</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">a something small that revealed insufferable and possible</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and that infancy you could not but nurture, for it gave breath to you.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="color: red; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">EXODUS: 1-5</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">So they’ve taught you the word, the history and the politics</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">they said it’s about the many, the coercion, the helplessness<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">they’ve used genocide as add-on and ethnic-cleansing too</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">they’ve said it over and over again, they’ve had purpose too</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">make no mistake, for injustice suffered is an old wound</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">it can be milked, made to bleed and is alibi for ‘return in kind’ plus interest.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The word is ‘departure’ and that’s basic, primordial and evermore<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">for it is about reaching a singular point that screams or whispers:</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">‘I cannot stay, I should not stay and I will not stay</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">not in the way I stayed or went before, no, no more, this is it.’</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">In other words, you’ve decided to leave the path</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">the prearranged, the agreed upon, the ‘right way’ you’ve been taught.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Remember this: there will be a million reasons not to stray</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">all logical, all defensible and all leading to safety if not glory<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">low cost, low-maintenance, less risk, less pain, less heartache</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">it’s a crossroads that others have arrived at long before you</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">it’s not the first you’ve encountered and there will be others later on</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">it’s a crossroad, however, that made you stop, a point of departure in the end.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The road less traveled may hold delights of its own</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">colors better named or so new that they offer coinage privilege<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">the road less traveled is an adventure waiting for you</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">it is an excitement yet not experienced, perhaps by none</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">an allure enough for the young armed with exuberance<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and you might tell yourself, ‘though unknown it’s inviting enough.’</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">But who are we kidding here, for well we know it’s not for nothing</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">that the road well-traveled is, well, well-travelled and lined with delight<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">‘Delight’ however, only under specific conditions, conformities and affirmation,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">there’s a covenant and there’s submission, things to swallow, grin and bear,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">for it’s easy to look away, to pretend you didn’t see, to swear there was nothing to see</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">for what joy is there in letting the blood of others spoil our feast, in fighting another’s cause?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="color: red; font-family: inherit;">EXODUS: 6-10</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">You can stay or you can leave, stand up or sit, speak or be silent</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">there are times when you have to go in order to stay</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and then again if you stay, it means you’ve gone forever</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">so you decide: stay or leave, speak up or forever remain silent</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">stand up, stand up, stand up to defend truths believed<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and then you will know that it’s not just about you, but everyone else</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">You stand up, and you leave others sitting down</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">you speak up, and you identify those who are silent</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">you leave and in leaving, others you will leave behind</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">It’s not just to the status quo you say ‘goodbye’</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">for from the moment of departure, all things are transformed</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">friends, relations, colleagues, places, contexts and all.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">There are new eyes looking at you, there are new ears listening</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and behind familiar faces are minds that think the unfamiliar<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">“who is this who says and is silent, does and declines</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">what mystery and monster has lurked among us?”</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">For they may not know you, but you’ve nevertheless named</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">you’ve framed them, forced them to question you, and more inconveniently, themselves.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s the same world around you, same faces and streets</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">they’ve retained their names no doubt, but they are not the same,</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">for your eyes you’ve exchanged and so too your ears,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">where there was seeing before there is insight now</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">then there was assuredness and now there’s doubt</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">before real and artificial were one, and now it’s different</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">things have jumped out of silhouette and shadow and this makes for unease.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Departure is turning point but the point thereafter leads not to elysian fields</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">all known things become unknown and some even unknowable</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">blemish surfaces and knots and cracks upon polished countenances</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">that which seemed perfectly arranged is now bent or angled or twisted<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and everything will carry signatures that crumble and invitations to examine:</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">you’ve departed and you’ve stayed; only, now you see chasms and wonder about depth.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="color: red; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">EXODUS: 11-15</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Is the grass on the other side greener, is the voodoo magic stronger</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">what demons and gods do you think you’ll meet<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">what flowers, colors and rainbows, what monsoons and droughts</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">what poverties and riches, empowerment and helplessness</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">what deserts did you think you’ll have to wander in and for how long</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">what oases and wells, strangers kind and indifferent, what creatures?</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Out there in the necessary exile ordained by conviction and decision</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">out there in solitudes anticipated or unimagined<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">out there where dewdrops are few and is rough on tongue and bitter</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">where you will imagine hunger and thirst to be sweet and inevitable price</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">out there where the book of life is an exercise book with blank pages</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">out there you shall most definitely encounter The Mirror.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">It will not come as glass with mercury, will not offer familiar reflection <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">it will at first celebrate the departure, whisper ‘hero, hero of our times’</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">it will dress you in the garb of the savior, it will manufacture crowds</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">adoring masses chanting you name convinced of divinity<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">they will convince non-believers, condemn the unconvinced</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">they will stand guard against those who would in ignorance harm.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">In the blink of an eye, with the take and give of breath, they’ll be gone</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">no following, no cheers, no halo, no garb gold-thread lined</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">no hosannas, no whispers even, no one to to offer water or kerchief<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">just the growling of suspecting dogs, the wailing of cats</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">spears sharp, hands firm and ready to throw, and words</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">a monsoonal downpour of harsh, dismissive, threatening, determined words.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">‘Turn back! Turn back! This is not your time, this is not your fight!’</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Did not the wind scream objection, did not the soil slip and make you fall?</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">This is the first formidable wall you will encounter, the first of many</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">there will be people, roses and thorns, roses as thorns and vice versa<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">there will be soft sand for the eye and beneath it hard and uneven gravel,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">sweet voices that in an instant grows harsh, wine that’s laced with poison.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="color: red; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">EXODUS: 16-20</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The territory of banishment is dull, and even dead, they would have told you</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">dust lays thick on forgotten architectures, broken things abound</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">there may have been others who’ve ventured or were banished</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">they may have left a trace, a footprint here and a footprint there</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">some sign of being, of passing and moving on (or back to servility)</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and in that desolate land will you find the finest of fine universities.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Exile is not the desert that desolate landscapes promise</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">for even the rare blade of grass has lessons to teach</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">yes, even specks of dust, unending squalor and solitude</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">come ready with wisdom drops left behind by those who came before</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">every creature, wild, wonderful and menacing</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and even a gust of wind and the scorching sun will teach.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Here you will learn of subterfuge, the play of disguise and deceit</span><span class="s1"></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">the play of power and powerlessness, aggression and resistance</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">things that can and will be contested, things you have to live by</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">things that you must let go in the marginality of cost and benefit</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">mountains that can be moved and mountains that will not budge</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">a plant that points to water, birds and insects that tell of rain.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">There’s a treatise of survival at every turn, in every nook and cranny</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">but first, you would do well to stop, for you can’t turn the earth<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">there’s no handle to start or stop the natural cycles</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">for water will come and go, flow and stay at its own pace</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">so too the wind, in its gush and whisper, silence and scream</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">so too fire and earth, the one in randomness and the other in immovability.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Here you will learn that virtues of silence and stillness, the ace of understatement</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">for there are times when you must go out to war, pick up gauntlet and fight</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and there are times to let the enemy come to you and ace with readiness<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">there will be need to read signs fast, for split-second decision is at times demanded</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">but first, and foremost, you need to read them slow, for not all is revealed at once</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and not all the prods and digs will unearth the lost archaeological tracts of reading.</span></span><br />
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
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<span class="s1"><span style="color: red; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">EXODUS: 21-25<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">How much of you did you leave behind and how much did you keep</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">what happened to the you that left and who is the you that you are now</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">did distance give you silhouette or detail, surface or depth</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">in the transformation of perspective did battle seem trivial</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">did it loom larger than the mountain, flow as ripple or an ocean’s roar</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">did you see ant and anthill, the warrior, the war and these as drops of sorrow?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Where did the blood brothers and blood sisters go, what happened to family</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">where is that moment fragranced by love, longing and despair</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">what of the longitudes and latitudes of mercy, the soft moments of respite</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and those landscapes of clinical neatness that hid the world’s squalor<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">the statues and urban fragments that spoke back-stories no one listened to</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and the storybook characters who left a trace on children who never grew up?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">There’s a question at every turn, each footstep yields a yarn and a riddle</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">some are answerable and the answers to others will elude you<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">do not despair, for these are time bombs whose time may come,</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">for the palms of the exiled they take root, put out buds and thorns</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">weapons all, like words that are titled for effect, a smile and gaze even</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">scriptures will sprout at will, by and by, but it takes time and insomniac years.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">So where is that terrible desert, where the unforgiving glacial lands</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and which map marked the river of cataracts, jagged edged mountains</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">the acidic and glass-shard strews littoral that would and did cut the sole</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">those skies filled with crows and bats, daytime and night,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">ready to drop and splatter and make you stink and revulsive,</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">the long corridors and the prison cells you never thoughts would be home?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Sand there is and it is hot, but it’s not called that name<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">glaciers too and they would burn through the hardiest boots</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and no, they would not be made of ice or carry related metaphors<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">pebbled beaches hard on the eyes, and crow-shit days, weeks and months,</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and the narrowest hallways barbed wired, and the darkest of solitary cells</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">they will come named but not in languages familiar, none of them.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><span style="color: red;">*This is a series written for the 'HAPPINEZ' section of 'THE SUNDAY MORNING' newspaper. I'll keep adding each week's submission.</span></span></div>
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Malinda Wordshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17700355635566651088noreply@blogger.com4