Variations on a Theme

salimli alieha
send her my greetings
my wishes for a beautiful life
convey to her my message
my message of love
send her my greetings
and kiss her hands
give her my message of love
that could never be
which she understands 
far better than me...

send her my greetings
our nightimes of kisses
endless and fragrant
in the bath of moonlight
send her my greetings
and these memories
we never made...

sing her my greetings
sing her my greetings
in a longing uşşak
or the mysterious
wisdom of hüzzam
send her my greetings
with this melody in sabah
sing to her my greetings
soulfully from the heart
so she knows...

i miss her greetings
i miss her greetings 
has she forgotten me?
no messages from afar
has she forgotten me?
without her greetings
without her love, i am
but a galley slave
aboard a ghost ship
on this sea of emptiness
i miss her greetings

երազ

by your river or mine?
under your orange tree
or my chestnut or apple?

you leaned against the tree
looking over the river
me lying down looking up
contemplating the bluest sky
through the leaves and branches
flickering sunlight and shadows
upon our very selves lost in
the slow dance of a shared dream

you begin to sing
old love songs, deeply rooted,
in our cultures that are both
so different and the same
you sing so semai-sweetly 
bayati sweetly bitter 
ayp tsa to my ears
acapellic songs of 
of intense yearning
unbearable love
as the river
flowed
on...

and then there's this

always
retooling
retrenching
re-calibrating
rejuvenating
seemingly
forever 
 

oh calm down
take a deep breath
start anew, restart
take a higher road
inspire yourself
be inspiring
be... alive and
just fucking do
    something

you have that cool
aluminum pen
so, sit down
take another
maybe deeper breath
exhale and start
writing some
    better shit 

etudinality

feeling desperation
mid-winter blues? 
cabin fever?
fear of missing out?
no, none of these
not these at all
more a reality check
a settling reality
    of aging out

i'm on another plane
a shorter runway
no air traffic control
and no parachute
but then i ain't flying
    very fast 
    very high or
    very far

the thrilling days...

yesteryearing
not for a lost homeland
a lifestyle never to be
relived by us 
the offspring, the youngens 
of the displaced survivors 
now all gone

yesteryearing 
not for the old west
but the masked hero
the trusted scout
william telling
for law and order 
and justice always
in the purest truest
bestest propgandized
tv show could offer
a fifties kid that
stills lives within
    hiyo silver... away

valentines day 2026 

Դուն Էն Հուրին Իս

floating gracefully upon
the pluckish tendrilities
the babbling brookiness
the very armenian kanun
the effortless emanation
from marianna's heart and soul

i am there, in hayastan,
in amberd, at saghmosavank,
nowhere near yerevan
in the small villages 
just imagining, channeling,
our tarn upon tarn
centuries older than old
sacred spirit vibrating 
in our very genes

february 12, 2026 

 

a syrian feature fiim

working
grading somethings and 
listening, background 
youtubing... you know

a few hours of shajarian
then randomly udi boghos
a fasil here or hüzzam
hrant, sayat, and tatyos
uşaklı, the kızzy one
neither tahir or there

and then...
it became poetic 
something you sing
that you sing real good
and i just paused
as my soul drifted
in ethereal currents
headed in your 
general direction