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بسم الله الرحمان الرحيم



بسم الله الرحمان الرحيم

مرحبا بكم

Meditations

Oct 22, 2012

Palestine

Tell the sailors
that the distant sea
is cold at night
and that the island
is for those eyes
of love and light.

Upward bring your hearts
and of Eden never lose sight
Lest the roads of Earth
take you where the sun
is not bright.

Lost is innocence,
cold is the world,
mixed is wrong with right
Crossed are the frontiers,
tossed are the minds
without flight.

See,
this is not the place
to remember the past
of a knight
Nor is it of wisdom
to forget the black
memory of the white
Look beyond the dark,
open a window of hope
and fight.




Chokri Omri


Oct 18, 2012

To Muslims in Modern Times


By the soul, and That which shaped it and inspired it
[with the capacity to distinguish between] lewdness and God-fearing,
prosperous is he who purifies it, and failed has he who seduces it. (91:7-10)



Brothers love their sisters and remember
As the leaves of a tree called life are falling,
At one time apart and at another together,
There will sooner or later come a voice calling:
Injuries will heal and hence be forgotten
Lies will stumble, be found out and go down
Dreams will dovetail with good deeds and come true
Weapons invented and used against life will end
Birds and flowers will be set free of cages and fences
Innocence and Beauty will spring back and prosper
Tears in our sacred soil will be wiped out forever
Every scoffing built upon our falling is nothing
This tree of life is fruitful and has wonder and wonder.


Chokri Omri
2012

Oct 16, 2012

What the old man said


As I woke up one day in the icy morning to make sure my efforts will dispel my plight, the old man I met from whom I had always been learning told me that time is now high for me to beware and get ready for buckling in the Arabian Island of light. With a smile on my face I kept listening to him and then I asked him if he could tell me right that everything is now set for us to fight. But then, I asked him again, where is the Enemy? Where is the Friend? The old man kept silent and then replied with a deep sigh:

“Fight the enemy within yourself first and you will know that whoever helps you in finding him out is your friend and whoever tells you not to fight him is your enemy without doubt. God help those who help themselves.”

For this, I continue to write and say:

Down! Down! my Enemy
and read not my pity and sorrow,
Lest, perhaps, you turn ignorant
and become my Friend tomorrow.
Yesterday went on and today
has gone to join it so soon
My people are down to earth
but I weep and look at the moon
That has always conferred warm light
on the sky and never told for whom.

True,
we all have dreams and fears
of sailors who have seen how
the sea and the waves turn angry
and take everything to drown our land.

Look!
Will it be of profit for you
my Enemy not to be my Friend
And help me not to help you
and act on when shaking my hand?

Farewell to arms, goodbye to fears,
to you I will never give my health.
I will give my best to life and friendship
when enmity had and has always death.
Long and tiring is the journey
to the Lighthouse yet without it
everything always means nothing.


Chokri Omri
2012


In the City Cafe of Tunis


We, pedestrians, who love open range
walk in and out for freedom and bread.
It is now high time for autumnal change
And the city streets are propelling us ahead.

Reality is contained and so in it is my life
Here just in this street corner of Lafayette
I rest in the Cafe and drink a cup of tea
The servant seems to be good natured
with his smile he comes and goes here
and there for nothing more than service.

Time is slow and outside the wind is blowing.
Moments grow, the lights are white and bright at night.
The two girls sitting in front of me must know it is late
But for this, as I see it, they do not care at all and wait.
They look at each other and laugh more than they speak
Why do I then fail to understand what they are weaving?

I drink my tea but the taste of it
is getting bitter and bitter.
They could have been my sisters
so that I would have asked them
to go home before the storm
but of no use now is my meddling.
I walk out with tears in my eyes
to see that it is so cold inside and outside.


Chokri Omri

‘In the Ornaments of the City Cafe’
2012


Oct 15, 2012

On Enmity and Friendship



Down! Down! my Enemy
and read not my pity and sorrow,
Lest, perhaps, you turn ignorant
and become my Friend tomorrow.
Yesterday went on and today
has gone to join it so soon
My people are down to earth
but I weep and look at the moon
That has always conferred warm light
on the sky and never told for whom.

True,
we all have dreams and fears
of sailors who have seen how
the sea and the waves turn angry
and take everything to drown our land.

Look!
Will it be of profit for you
my Enemy not to be my Friend
And help me not to help you
and act on when shaking my hand?

Farewell to arms, goodbye to fears,
to you I will never give my health.
I will give my best to life and friendship
when enmity had and has always death.
Long and tiring is the journey
to the Lighthouse yet without it
everything always means nothing.


Chokri Omri

‘In the Ornaments of the City Café’
2012


Oct 5, 2012

THE EXHIBITIONIST

http://thexzbt.wordpress.com/xzbt3/

http://thexzbt.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/xzbt3.pdf


Oct 2, 2012

What ails you brother?


It is up to our hearts
to arrive at noble feelings
and walk with them
all the way up
to noble thoughts.
The fields are laden
with rips horrendously
unmended
Will it be availed
to mend them
without surrender?
Come brother and walk
with me when you can
into a better place
in which dreams
are supported
by realities
not baffled by them.
Come brother and talk
with me as much as
the truth can speak
against their wounds
and crimes.
Come brother and take
good care of your health
for the journey is long.
It is a journey of life
not that of those
who tell you not to go
and tell me not to come.
Come brother and don't
tell me about what ails you
for what ails you ails me too.
We will walk and work and talk
together, not apart, together.


Chokri Omri






Oct 1, 2012

Aborted Memories


Looking at them carefully
Makes me grow sea sick
but I try to calm my soul
and spirit with songs and hymns
Of Love and Freedom gone.
The cold streets of the city
And the arising fears I see
In the faces of my people
Cannot but dispel those of mine.
Where are the sweet tales told
Down to us from father to son ?
Where are the woods gathered
To withstand the cold weather
To make it depart for warmth and sun ?
I hope this is enough for division
I hope this is enough for admonition
Looking at them looking at me now
Makes me aimlessly wander and smile
What I continue to keep in my heart
They did forget and they only
come and go and wonder none.


Chokri Omri