I
Since first we met at London’s rebuilt Globe,
My world has been dissolved and made anew:
This Palestinian Jonah crossed with Job
Has learnt that love can heal, because of you.
Some synchronistic thread or genial star
Brought us together, while the wholesome voice
And image I had dreamt of when afar
Released me from the bonds of solemn choice.
For there you were, beside me on the bench –
The black Israeli goddess of my nap,
Who did not rail or even slightly blench
When burst my bag of nuts above your lap.
The smile you gave was boundless as the sea,
And your indulgence surely set me free.
II
That you by choice left Zion and your kin
Because the Occupation nullified
The very truths you cherish deep within,
You twice my revelation justified.
This said, I you no less appreciate
For wishing to return once peace is made
Between our peoples – I as much would hate
My native inclinations to evade.
Meanwhile let’s help to keep the dream alive,
By loving one another without qualms;
And hope that, since for unity we strive,
We’ll be received by all with open arms.
No matter where in future I reside,
I’d not be there but you were at my side.
III
Before by global warming it takes place,
May London melt in Thames should I allow
My jealous heart to willfully encase
You in our home or bind you to a vow.
For, damn it all, from Sufi roots I stem –
The mystic branch, contemptuous of those
Who use Islam in order to condemn
Such souls that don’t in law Allah enclose.
So, when at times the green-eyed monster rears
And fight I some fell satyr hot for you,
Please hold me tight and with your soothing tears
Dampen the flames which would love’s fire subdue.
When we each other’s fear in part dispel,
We help release Earth’s atmosphere from hell.
IV
O Queen of Sheba’s namesake, my Negeest,
Like her from south whom Solomon loved best,
You travelled north to Zion in Middle East
And then, like me, sought refuge in the West.
But here, alas, we need to show those folk
Who think the world’s their slavish oyster still
That yellows, browns and blacks have split the yoke
Which bowed them long to white men’s harmful will.
Yet, gently and with wisdom we should act –
For many now are goaded on by dread;
And wrong we’d be, unless we heed the fact
It was from fear I, also, lost my head.
Like pearls, created out of toil and sand,
Let’s charm with light this storm-tossed, royal land.
V
When met we at The Tempest, I was dazed
By light that from your eyes was clearly cast;
And even now I’m constantly amazed
How, with your smile, it freed me from the past.
For I, a lonely Arab, had become –
Especially after Nine-Eleven fell –
Dejected, paranoiac: thus, in sum,
Imprisoned in a Western kind of hell.
I dream you are an angel rising high,
While men like Lucifer are falling down;
Your hue’s your shadow, which you don’t deny
And won’t project onto a stranger’s frown.
When paler humans recognize the black,
Within they gain the light they else must lack.
VI
I dreamed last night, my dearest love, you were
Restorer of poor Hecate’s primal light:
As goddess of the Moon, she’d now confer
Upon mankind her matchless second sight.
We then as Eve and Adam swiftly flew,
Beneath her beams, to Africa of yore
Into the Garden, where at first we knew
Integrity – since all our traits we bore.
O, fair dark lady, you have rescued me
From blaming every Zionist for my plight:
For never have I heard you make a plea
Against a guiltless Arab or a white.
Those souls that do their natural shadow bear
Are they that would this shattered world repair.
VII
Just as the radiant Moon has a dark side
And Earth’s endowed with night, along with day,
So man with shadow Nature’s laws provide,
Without which he as creature couldn’t stay.
Moreover, physics tells how energy
Requires both positive and counter charge;
How mass itself – substantiality –
Demands that anti-matter be at large.
But fallen man projects onto the whole
His need to separate the opposites:
What better sign of his divided soul
Than he the constituted atom splits!
While disconnected minds Creation part,
We’ll stay united by the holy heart.
VIII
Before my heart was lit by your jewel-like eyes,
Though scared I was indeed to go outdoors,
I used to seek with guilt and gloomy sighs
Relief from solitude in gaudy whores.
Your voice no less now saves me from that fate,
As do those airs you play on harp or flute;
Like Caliban, when music eased his hate,
I feel transformed: an angel-rendered brute.
O siren, Muse, and goddess all in one,
If had you no more talents, these would still
Outshine most beings’, but you dance and run
With Salome’s grace and swift Hippolyta’s skill.
No wonder drunks from taverns, late at night,
Outside our windows cease to swear or fight.
IX
When I observe you spin upon your wheel,
Embroider cushions with exquisite flowers,
I spy my mother’s village, where, I feel,
Once peace arrives we’ll pass our sweetest hours.
I then in pain reality recall,
And focus on the twins within your womb;
Remember how our kindred, one and all,
Regard our holy wedlock as a tomb.
Yet, were full justice done to Palestine –
The Occupation ended, wall destroyed –
My mum, at least, would cease to undermine
The love that has replaced a fearful void.
No son’s true mother could reject a girl
Whose soul reflects the wholeness of a pearl.
X
By Nablus town, where Ashtoreth held sway,
The fertile earth communes with Moon and Sun;
There lies the house we’ll have when comes the day
That Palestine and Israel are one.
I’ll bury pen, then consecrate my time
To tending, safely, vines in our own garden;
Sing songs of peace with Fatima and Haim,
While God, now known to all, shall freely pardon.
On rainy, winter afternoons you’ll show
The local maidens how to sew or weave,
As our boy and girl, like cedars, strong will grow –
Two doves, who in the Phoenix can believe.
A thousand blessings will embrace that land,
Once wisdom, faith and love have made a stand.
Jerusalem
21 March 2007