From: Winter, 2002
Words
Morning tea is dark
Like the night behind our house
Where the sun lost its way
And the air did not stop to greet our trees.
We gaze at our place where we sat last night
we know
we'll leave everything behind us
And won't collect the scattered words between the chairs.
Night was long
The candle is dusty and cold like our fingers
Why do we wait for tomorrow
If only to throw our words like pieces of papers
on the table and leave?
For her
1
The olive leaves
That decorated our door
Are long now
It’s a month since you left.
2
Your ring shines
In a dark corner
You will come tomorrow.
3
For me
To love you more
I will lead you
To the big room
And before we lean
Toward each other for a kiss
I will light a candle
For me
To see you
More.
Everything
Everything is in place
Your mirror
Your gem stones
The burning oil pot
The henna pot
For the Eid to come.
An empty chair
Last summer's shirt
Your scent on the pillow
Remnants of our last day’s kiss
Everything is there
Even the sun
We saw sinking behind our balcony
Everything, but you
"EID is the holy day for Muslims."
Soon
We will meet soon
But we will soon part again
Not knowing the next meeting place.
It is two seasons since we last met
Your hair is long now
The last time
We built a house of words.
When I imagined you
Watering the plants in the balcony
You were reading leaves
I know
That this moment is short
This embrace and
Our lives, together and a part
Too soon swept away
By winds of disappearances.
But for now, we will meet
And I will let you rest
Like a soft shadow
On my arm.
Selected Poems From: SEAS, 2005
By The Holy Fire
On those nights
I stood long in front of oceans
Letting the waves crush violently
Under my feet.
I used to wait
For winds of words to come
And carry me
So I could breathe the smell of lakes
I would warm myself
By the holy fire
On islands' edges
Listening to chants of ancient people
Echoing from the depth of caves.
On those nights
The earth
Was not enough for me.
I flew too far away
Carrying some dreams
With tired wings and
A few hopes.
I was still weak
When the storms
Thundered in distance.
Decades later
I realize how painful this voyage was.
But to stay
Is more painful.
For that
I left my heart in the winds
Of words and dreams.
A Little Bird
Summer's Fog
Morning is not here yet
I cannot see
The sleeping town in front of me.
A refreshing air comes from the west
Palm trees stand in the fog
While contemplating
On what is left of the night
I hear sounds of birds.
Bare feet
And the house's roof is cold
A little bird
Comes flying and lands
On the long palm's frond.
It gazes toward me
I feel it is asking
What happened?
Why didn't you sleep last night?
Lantern
The moon stays
All night
Hanging like a lantern
In the dark
I am looking at patches of silver clouds
That enveloped the moon
Searching for a dream
I lost
When I was a small boy.
Maybe a Cloud
Maybe
It is a cloud
Over shadowing my heart
Since early morning
The beats are slow and quiet
Blood flows into my veins
As if a clear stream, maybe,
It is only a cloud.
Crystals of dreams
We will empty all the rooms
Soon
The balcony we washed together
Would be empty of the shadows
Of us sittings in it.
We will gather the melted candles
The deserted poems on our table
And moments after midnight
We will gather
The scattered pieces
Of the crystals of our dreams
And leave.
We will leave
For maybe we
Could open another door
For the scent of the past may come
And fill our days
With the smell of desert flowers.
It may come, to bring
The water of the stream
Where we had a swim
Together in Hatta.
It may happen
So I can feel your heart beats
Beats under my chest
It all reminds me of the rock
Where we poured love
While Bedouin women
Hid behind the dunes.
And,
Before we part
Hand me the light
The illuminated world of your
Amazing soul
Hand me your dunes
Your endless meadows
Help me with your shaky hands
And generous wisdom, feelings
Your impossible oasis where
Horror springs every nigh
From your springs.
I am
The believer of your sour kisses
And the hidden dreams in your wells,
I am the believer of your winds
Which erase my sins on your dunes
The beggar in front your doors
The one who gave up his life
For a few moments near your soul.
We will empty the heart from its pain
Soon
And again, we gather the poems
That were scatter
After our disappearance.
Again
We will meet
Pick up the pieces of crystals
One by one
And again, rebuild
The dreams.
All That We Have
Because there is no one there
Now is the time
For me
To set off
On the road
Toward the desert.
There
I would be
Where no one covers the horizon
Or prevents the sky from falling
On my head.
When the winter comes
Or the summer nears
With its burning winds
I would be the wonderer
Who's searching
For you.
The night
Binds me like a page in a book
And when the morning surprises me
With its sun,
The red apple,
I would stand
Like old monastery's column
Uttering melodies
Of traveling Bedouins,
Praying for the darkness
With all my heart's beats
So my voice can
Reach you.
It will not be too late
In the age
To come back to you
Because your voice always comes back
And burns my life
With your hot breaths.
I see an image of your body
Laying in the dark
Burning
And I ask
How can we learn love
When night is dry
Like an old tree
And all the horizons
Are not welcoming
For the journey.
I extend my hand
But cannot touch you
I know
We are two souls
In solitude
I know that daydreams
All that we have
When our hearts search
For a shelter.
I approach wells in the summer
I find that
You are the water,
And in winter nights
You are burning with enigmatic light
Your lightning breaks the sky,
For that
My dream's desert
Is bright.
Because no one is there
We will lay down
On the shoulder of a dune
Gazing silently
At colors of far hills
We wait for no one
You might say
No more Bedouins
They disappeared
All of them
Before we knew them
Or wrote their names
On the skins of our tent
Before we learned love from them
And I would say
Look carefully
Behind our dune
I can see their souls approach us
Rising from the mirage of distance
Or
Appearing to us from
The future.
I extend my hand
Toward you
Carrying a few daydreams
This
Is all that remains for us.
And we have few more years
To build our tent
Near the wells,
We will stay all night
With the light of
Our existence
While we wait for the Bedouins
Stop their journeys
To settle into the sand
We will hand them buckets
Filed with water
And they, from their time worn bags,
Will hand us
Love
So we can learn it
Again.
Khalid Albudoor was born in 1961 in Dubai, UAE, poet who published three collections of poetry. He was among the group who founded the UAE Writers Union and considered to be one of the leading poets in the modern poetry movement in the UAE. He is also an active member in the cultural scene in UAE and a board member of Dubai Cultural council.
Email: kalbudoor@yahoo.com