Such Things These Eyes They Wish To See

 ON AUDIO HERE

                                             "Madinah Sunset" by Qalb Par Nazar



i wish upon embers
falling from my eyes
not tears
but starshine
blazing and glorious
like the sunset over Makkah

i wish i can take flight
like Iqbal's eagle
soaring and endless
searching for its place
insane
yet, oh 
so divine

and i wish that my gaze
may one day fall
upon the both of you
smiling 
at me

as Muhammad must have smiled
at Khadija
a love so rare 

not quite romantic
unconditional 

as the love i have for you
simultaneous 

like blood brothers 
mine

eternal.


- Susan Marie 2013 


[last poem of the year, for my two brothers]

How Can I Not Love You?

ON AUDIO HERE

 

                                                                © Susan Marie  


How can I not love you

you
just
bring
happy
thoughts
like

birds trilling in Spring
after the last snowfall
just like rain as it falls
quenching the deep thirst of this Earth

like the soil
rich and deep
with stories of our forefathers
and signals of smoke
rising from campfires
lost in the velvet night 
like souls rebirthing

every
single
second

How can I not love you
like I love myself
as I love the sun
as she shines her knowing eye
and the moon
as she keeps watch over our tired souls

How can one despise such beautiful sights
feelings
emotions
thoughts
passions
and states of simply
being?

For to not love you
is to not love myself
and to despise the sun and moon
the dirt and Earth
the canyons and mountains
rivers and valley

and the very edge
of a solitary blade of grass
as I watch it waltz
beneath a most pristine Autumnal sky

How can I not love you

when
you
just
bring
happiness

to
me.




© Susan Marie


For My Hermana del Alma, Te Amo, Paz.

Words Are Nothing More

ON AUDIO HERE 

words are nothing more
than the sky
crying
thunderous crystalline bolts
of pure esoteric passion
from the deepest crevices
that hide beneath my ribcage
as it expands
gently, rising
with each breath,
delicate

as my lips, purse
just so
perfect, like dreams
like pictures in magazines,
like art

like the sun and moon
how they love,
and the wind and rain
how they cry,
like the oceans and lakes
the rivers and seas,
as they quiver and quake
on the very edge
of a vortex of unbridled passion

exploding

like no nuclear fission ever fragmented
like no storm that has ever touched upon Earth
like no angels that have ever been heard singing songs of choir

like nothing
any human
has ever
experienced

except for the the rain
as it falls
ever so gently upon the roof
when unable to sleep

and like words
that are nothing more
than the sky

crying



© Susan Marie

The Fates of Nations

ON AUDIO HERE

To those who decide
the fates of nations
lives
loss
blood
life
and bone

To those who do nothing
but complain
about their
good 
life

To those who never go
without
in order to give to those
who do

To those who realize
precisely what one is doing
with every action
thought
breath
with their wailing tongue
and blackened heart
paying homage to
greed
power
money
and nothing remotely
humane

To those who think prayer
is pointless
and faith
is an empty well

I echo my forefathers
when they escaped from
one nation
just to be treated harshly
in another

Crossing waters
on wooden ships
with disease
rats
no food or shoes

I echo their cries
as their newborns died
in arms of Mothers
from hunger

When sons died
fighting
age 12
for their birthright

When finally
they landed
the ones who survived
and set foot upon land
just to be made slave

To those who do nothing
and sit 
complacent
apathetic 
and ignorant 

It is for you, I pray
For you.

From the mouths of those
you step on -

from the souls you crush 
daily -

from the cracked and bleeding mouths
of our people -

All people
That suffer.

They pray -

For those who decide
the fates of nations.


© Susan Marie 


* Papa Francisco asked to bring peace to those who decide the fates of nations .  . . 

Just Buffalo's Literary Cafe The Center for Inquiry

 

Just Buffalo's Literary Cafe The Center for Inquiry

Click here for calendar showing next Literary Cafe event. 

Your host: Perry Nicholas, click here to contact him

1. Susan Marie click here for download right click here

2. Don Scheller click here for download right click here

3. Verneice Turner click here download right click here

promise yourself this

On Audio --> here

promise yourself this

no matter how utterly
hurtful
something may feel
when words are hurled
towards you
even direct
and sometimes
on purpose

like a tornado
an earthquake
like Mother Nature
breaking, finally

when all the dark chasms of this Earth
break open
and the plates of this planet
you were born onto
crash into one another
birthing explosions of molten lava
that spread upon your heart
molding an ashen sculpture

and the beasts that exist in the void
such evil winged creatures
begin flying above you
as your spirit lie
breathless, exhausted, wasted
and the last atoms
that are left
create

a
nuclear
reaction

promise yourself this

that if one chooses
or does not even know
that they are releasing
all of their insecurities
angers
hatreds
confusions
afflictions
desires
passions
and eventually

all of their love

upon your very soul

please, promise yourself this

just
simply

forgive.


© Susan Marie 

the perfect poem

On audio HERE

the perfect poem
is without words

it is heard within the cries of lovers
legs entwined
like trees
limbs reaching roots
climbing vines
towards heaven

it is the sun dappled dawn
rich and vibrant
like cheeks rising
as apples, ripe

it is the laughter of children
encrypted within chalk lines on sidewalks
where no words are spoken
and no language exists

it is the heart, racing
through atriums and ventricles
pumping blood to breath

so your eyes
show laughter
through your tears after rainfall

the perfect poem
is you

perfect,
poem

it is the presence of love

and the breath of angels.

© Susan Marie 

Radio with Ruthann Amarteifio : A week in Palestine and Poetry

 

Ruthann Amarteifo conducts an evening of a week in Palestine ending with spoken word and poetry.

The first half of the show features violations reported by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights relayed via Raymond Blaine. A solitary altercation between an Israeli and a Palestinian resulted in the destruction of cultivated crops and almond trees by fires, school buses attacked, more than 90 Israeli military incursions, the wrongful abduction of people, children and elderly wounded, the destruction of mosques and further demolitions of private property.

The initial cause of the week Raymond reports on is a direct result over a peaceful protest against the confiscation of land in Palestine by Israel.

Later in the show, Ruthann brings three poets together for a round table discussion on poetry, writing and life, including live readings of their work.

Derek Ubuntu Dunham and Quin Overman discuss essential aspects of writing such as inspiration, creative writing classes, copyright issues, and styles of poetry. Both writers focus on areas of inspiration like social awareness, writing groups and their experience reading the written word.

Crossover art is touched upon [one artist that embodies several genres of art such as painting, music, writing, sketch] and that talking about issues through writing and poetry ignites people to think more deeply about social issues.

Native American and African philosophy are brought to the surface through Derek and Quin and Susan Marie joins them towards the end of the show reading her piece, "This is my America" adding her inspirations, favorite writers and general reflections on the written and spoken word.

All three poets, along with Ruthann, discuss various aspects of nations in distress, specifically Palestine and Pakistan, as well as the muse and where each poet delves to reach that in depth place inside the soul that is responsible for automatic wring and stream of consciousness.  


To listen to the show, please link :  Gather Round with Ruthann Amarteifio


[To contact guests on the show and Ruthann, link directly to their websites by clicking their names above.] 

Thoughts While Sleepwalking

On Audio --> here

it leaps and bounds
love
climbing vines towards Heaven

zinging past stars, galaxies
meteors flashing
supernova stargaze falling embers

like a waterscape canvas
melting nightscape backdrop
settling upon blooms
springing forth
from each bud

an electrical buzzzzzzzzzz

resonating
a bumblehum
of drones
leaving the air
thick and heavy
like buttercream frosting.

If you look to the sky, you will see the energy
electrical lines quake and quiver 
a sonic boom
like static
traveling down one arm
to the fingertip
that touched Gods' own
on the ceiling of the Sistine.

Michelangelo knew about love.

Aboriginals knew.
They needed no speech.

They felt the Earth
pull their chests
outward
magnetic
a throbbing ache
of telepathic temple
told presence of
Mother Earth
God
Buddha
Muhammad
The Great Spirit
Yahweh

The bum in the gutter
has knowing eyes.
I bet you never took
the time to see.

Next 
         time
                  look 
                           closer

the iris
reflects
the freedom
of knowing
the same crazed stare
of a driven soul
escaping through 
tunnels of poetry
waiting to flood
the city streets
and drown 
the foolhardy.

The Genesis 

of an Apocalypse.  


© Susan Marie 

the most beautiful songs

On Audio --> Here


Sometimes
the obscurest birds
sing
the most beautiful songs.

Like a child,
placing blocks,
worn,
letters faded, atop another.

Oh . . . so carefully.

Or in the kitchen,
where one woman,
beautiful,
with her hair tied back,
cooks
and silently hums to herself,
her family, waiting,
in the other room.

And the man,
viewing his child below him,
placing worn blocks with such intent
then shifting his gaze to the back of his wife,
in the kitchen,
standing.

And there is no music.

No words are spoken.

It is simply understood
that sometimes
the obscurest birds

sing

the most beautiful songs.

 

© Susan Marie and Shivpreet Singh

*Shiv said to me, "Sometimes the obscurest birds sing the most beautiful songs." 

 

Poetry on Audio

"Defining Breath" on audio here

"starshine" on audio here 

I Am Kashmir

On

The News Tribe [Pakistan]

We Speak News [India]

© Majid Pandit 

I Am Kashmir

Dedicated to Shaheed Tahir from Baramulla

AUDIO HERE

a
rat
a
tat
tat

ya hear that?

another round
locked, and loaded

where boys,
are forced to be
men

and women
are raped

and children,
throw
stones

until a bullet hits the skin
piercing within
the gentle flesh that God made

My skin is worn
my heart,
heavy
and my mind,
must constantly evade
the darkness

Yet I am light
and my spirit

it IS strong

it flies with the midnight moon
chasing stars
supernovas
faster than the speed of light
stronger than the wind
more powerful than the sun herself
shining

celestial majestic divinity . . .

Aged.

I am

Kashmir.


© Susan Marie 2013


* CNN yanked this off of my professional media profile today. This young man, Shaheed Tahir died in Indian occupied Kashmir this week.

 

Birth of a Poem

On We Speak News [India]

The News Tribe [Pakistan]