Monday, October 27, 2025

Մախամ Չունիմ

if...
i could only imagine it
i can't even

an ideal, a concept,
a perfection i want
to improvise for you
better than any poem
better than any letter
better than any 
mere words or melody

a taksim, a chant,
an older than old school lament,
the good kind, that bring us to
a peace you so need and deserve

it's there, etched in our souls
coded in our dna
i am not good enough
or worthy enough, not able,
to extract it and even less able
to play it...

it is there, i feel it
it is sweet
    but not too sweet
it is sad
    but not too sad
it is joyful
    but not very happy

in a maqam no one
    has ever heard or played
but sounding so very
    familiar

so very familiar 

Wednesday, October 15, 2025

sitting

whattya write when
there's nothing to say
kinda like that fella 
sitting on the dock
of that famous bay

instead...
i am sitting near
the washing machine
watching the tide 
clean the clothes 
listenin'  to the 
swishy waves 
pulsing along 
humming to their
rhythm...

wastin' time? or just 
thinkin,' you know,
contemplatin' stuff,
stuff that have no 
answers...

i don't have to go
nowhere
to be far away

Friday, October 10, 2025

just a moment in time

walking slowly
more of an amble
on this october day
wanting to be more 
    autumnal
enjoying nature
the trees really wanting
and trying hard to
    change color 

walking along with a
persistent soundtrack
chakering in my head
and feeling you...
all around 
everywhere
in every leaf
in every bird
in the ghazel of the breeze
in every... fragrant breath

i felt your 
your serious look
    centering me
your playful glance
    a spring in my old gait
your dreamy gaze
    aerating my soul
your joyful laugh
    taking my heart to the sky
your vulnerable mien
    weighing it back down


shoulda left well enough alone

well... yeah...
this aluminium vessel
this rhetorical canoe
gitching the goomey
'surface of reality'
paddling up this stream
pooled by beavers
into a dam crafted of
chewed metaphors
to become this...

this whowatchadoozit
thingofabobamajig
poetic stain... 

october 2025 

Monday, September 29, 2025

nice day

in this shade of
being under an elder
crafting this wee bit
on this globally 
warm late september
still summer
oughta be autumn
alliterative kinda day
good enough
almost perfect...

 

Sunday, September 28, 2025

drychotomies

the emptiness
it came in an arid wave
dampening my spirit
in a mirage

content one moment
lost and unfulfilled 
the next...

what the...
how the ...
does this even happen?

bad poems
sloppy music
wanabee writer's
blockhead pretense
dilettantish delusion
old fuck wheezer
not even a great pretender

then...
i sat in the sun
and globally warmed
i thought of you
listened to music 
sipped coffee

and...
fucking hell
felt better

a self-absorbed
mood swung
flip-flop ping...

what was it you said?
oh yeah, lose the ego

Friday, September 26, 2025

your mujadara

it's called 'everyman's dish'
a simple steaming pot of three
or maybe ten ingredients
lentils sorted to remove the wee stones
the cracked wheat of the bulgars 
onions chopped and caramelized
some kind of stocky brothy 
almond milk bullionaire chicken 
or beef or just plain old water
spices and garnishes steeped
with love and tradition of the
very region you are named for

i have never tasted yours...
they say is the best ever, here
or there, in this hemisphere
or that, heck, maybe the planet

but i have been nourished, often,
by the mujadara of your soul 
by the mujadara of your heart
the mujadara of your very being
with every little look you give 
every little thing you say...

every beautiful note you sing
laden, dripping, with joy or pathos
even better when it is
    both at the same time