Allies of the Night

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Allies by Jan Betts (Signed March 10 2022 – acrylic on canvas)

Allies of the Night
(For Jan)

Beyond the jamble and the jumble of 9 to 5
past the freeways, the fast food, the furthest out
you’ve ever been…
Beyond the rest-stops, the repeating double yellow lines,
the markers on the highway,
the pullovers, the gravel shoulders,
grabbing your hoodie from the backseat…
Where did you think you were going?

This place can not be reached by car, or plane
or oxcart, on foot or mule train…
You saw it once in your lifetime,
but once was not enough…
and now, it no longer exists.

You saw it when there was no electricity,
just the night sounds of your mind,
drawn like a moth to flame;
your eyes followed these unearthly lights
as they made their way,
from branch to branch and tree to tree.
Your face lighting and paling
between awe and disbelieving

mystical whisperings blowing in your ears..
Those lights knew … so much more
than you could ever find words for.
They told you, the big secret..
so impossible to repeat
but so clearly true.

A musky perfume of ozone and decomposing leaves,
in the almost woods in an almost time, they were everywhere.
The lights danced in aerial grace and impossibility
they played with you..teasing…telling you things
you were not built to comprehend…
beyond the limits of your sanity, beyond your imagination
far past your brain’s wiring,
past the rest-stops and the highway markers..
beyond all borders and one country after another.
In a forest of a small girl’s dream world,
not scared just more alive,

you sat in a thatched roof room and said…
as they floated by,

“I don’t have the words”and you cried.
You cried in joy and promises that
sometime and someday far far away..
you would capture their likeness
on your canvas with your gift and your paints
these allies of the night,
that surrounded and caressed you

and then… way before the dawn…


Gone.

Karima Hoisan
March 11, 2022
Costa Rica

Footnote: Jan Betts is one of my dearest friends,,More of her amazing art
Can be seen here on her website: http://www.janbettsart.com/

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Wide-eyed and Innocent

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Wide-eyed and Innocent..

I always knew you were a real unicorn
living inside an ordinary human being,
waiting for just the right moment to reveal
and show the world what I knew you to be.

I’ve seen everyone and everywhere around me
disbelieve what their eyes can’t touch or see,
turn blind and cynical when they turn nine
because their child’s eyes have gone to sleep.

I have somehow kept mine wide-eyed and innocent
considered gullible, easily duped and deceived,
But I would never change my sight for any other
I can see beauty in almost absolutely everything.

Even the dark slush makes its art anywhere I go.
I usually keep it to myself, as no one wants to know.
The molded shades of black and grey excite my soul
when it covers the curbs and drains in liquid melting snow.

So when you threw off your suit and tie, at that party
and where you parted your hair a horn started to grow
I didn’t think twice to jump on your back and ride you like that
now all could see, what I always saw, but they could never know.

Karima Hoisan
March 7, 2022
Costa Rica

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You Brought The Music

Slide1

You Brought The Music
for Sundaram
(from a dream)

In a dream I had this morning, you brought the music and a friend.
I was living in a cottage with a park that stretched for miles
laid out in front like a soft green carpet floor.
You said, “Come on let’s dance and grabbing each my hand,
 you both pulled me out the door.
You brought a box you said would play the music and even before
you got it in its  place  it was pumping out these amazing sounds
I had never heard before.
But.. it made me want to move my feet…and we all began to dance.
We three lifted our weightless arms in the air,
we moved so gracefully as if we were but leaves
being tossed on the fragrant breeze.. that carried
along with us, the smells of incense, flowers after a rain and
a beautiful flowering tree, standing there, like a centerpiece.

In the four corners of the park, we saw people gathered somberly.
Some were praying or hearing lectures and it seemed various
religious sects, were accustomed to meet there weekly.
Some were standing, some were kneeling, some were meditating,
I was wondering if we might be trespassing, but I saw that
the center of the park was free.

The sun shone down upon our faces and we all felt so alive,
The warmth, the smells, the music, and our beautiful hands,
stretched up almost touching the sky,
Our feet swaying and twirling to the beat,
I looked over at you laughing and I was laughing too;
you mouthed a word and the wind brought it to my ear
in a tone of joyous abandonment..you whispered, “Magic!”

Then the people in the corners of the park, began to leave..
Some were walking to their cars and some just walking down the street,
but a few came walking towards us as if they had something they wished to say.
We never stopped our dancing, but we looked towards them on their way.
The taller man, as the spokesman for them all, addressed himself to me.
“You know these men are Hindu and you are Muslim, he said accusingly,
and here you are dancing in this park, in the light of day, in a public way.
“Do you have anything to say for yourself anything you could possibly say?”

“Well yes, you are correct I am Muslim and they are Hindu…
 and just look how beautifully and gracefully we dance together!”

Karima Hoisan
March 6, 2022
Costa Rica

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Your Choice

Surikov_Strelets_woman_hiding_her_face_1880
Surikov_Strelets_woman_hiding_her_face_1880

Where have you gone? Where are you now?
Can memories, dissolve in Time’s ocean,
like foam on waves rolling out to sea?
There is nowhere to even look for you…
as I am not sure who you were, 
or even why I never knew.

Everything was your choice and yet,
I thought, because of who I was to you,
I could choose too.
The truth would have set us free,
or end us like a ship wreck on the rocks.
You were so afraid to take that chance,
but love is always stronger than our doubts;
against the lies and half truths,
love is what would always win out.

Because we loved so uncommonly,
without romance
and desire
or long term plans;
all we ever pictured… we could do…
our gift was creating lasting beauty together
you and me..me and you…you and me
and thrill all those who came to see.

I wonder if you ever thought,
how sad I might be
if I ever lost you,
before I ever got to really know you?
If you were ever swept up in God’s shuffle,
without once reaching out, to let me glimpse
that unimaginable housing,
where your soul surely did reside.

I would have sheltered you from yourself
your fears and your reasons to hide.
I would have said,
“Nothing you could say would make me leave”
I promise you, I would have steadfastly stayed
by your side, every year, every day
If you just would not have been afraid
to let me see and to let me really know
who you truly were… behind the scenes.

Karima Hoisan
March 2, 2022
Costa Rica

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Nomination for Spillwords Author of the Month

Update:  Our own Jeff Flesch, a wonderful poet from our WordPress community was voted Author of the Month!!
I am thrilled for Jeff and also for our talented community as a whole   Keep writing!!!!

Hi everyone,
I just wanted to make a short post to tell you all that, although I was nominated along with;
Eliza Segiet
John Drudge
Jeff Flesch
Phyllis P. Colucci
Karima Hoisan
Greg Massey
Ron Rowland
for Spillwords  Author of the Month and I am extremely thankful to everyone there at Spillwords for choosing me along with the others mentioned, I personally have decided to not ask for votes.
Thank you all for your great support of me here on WordPress for 11 years!!
You have made my blogging journey a very special and delightful experience, full of
friendship and learning and mutual support.
Thank you again Spillwords.com for publishing 8 of my poems.
I am eternally grateful to you all and for this honored nomination.

Here’s a  Cinquain for your viewing pleasure:)

Today
I felt the sting
of loving you too much
so allergic to loneliness
I died.

Love,
Karima

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Green Screen – The YouTube

I originally wrote this poem on January 5th, 2022, inspired by so many influencers and social media Tik Tockers, YouTubers  who pretend they are something or somewhere they are not. What is really really real?

I want to give my thanks to Bl!xx (Pablo Badilla, keyboardist) and his arrangement of my original music and for recording my voices and Ariel Soto on drums. A big shout out to JoeyTwoShoes, my mermaid twin for volunteering to do this with me.
Thanks to Dale Innis for a last minute shot of Manhattan on his lunch break:):)
Watch it in HD720 and Full screen..Sing along..I hope it becomes  very “pegajoso”   a sticky.. earworm you find you are humming in the shower:):)  Take 3 minutes out of your lives and enjoy or sing along:)
Likes and Comments on YouTube or here..much appreciated

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Snow Globe

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    Snow Globe by Greg James Davis

Snow Globe

On apple cheek winds
your ice and chill wrapped in,
“I hope you enjoyed your day.”
I enjoyed it more when you were in it
when your voice went slo mo in my ear,
when we were friends and didn’t feel
you felt, it was time to run away.
Charging off to nowhere, I see what I did
but too late to change that date.
What was so exciting, so promising
freezing on the vine of “See you later”
and later became much later
and one day it froze in place.

I have some poems from that time
so it was not a total waste,
but inside your snow globe
it never snows
there is no one to pick it up
and gently turn it over…
to watch the flakes fall on that scene
we both tried to create.
Whatever we imagined in our dreams,
a longer twisting road, or seriously, a kinder fate
is now lost inside your desk drawer…
a boring piece of yesterday
this snow globe paper weight.

Karima Hoisan
February 19, 2022
Costa Rica

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Green Screen…The Music Video

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                                          Opening Title Shot

Hi everyone,
I just wanted to make excuses 🙂 for not being so active on my blog and also not keeping up with everyone I am following. The reason is, I am shooting a music video (machinima) in Second Life, to go with the song. The soundtrack is ready except, my voices need to be re-recorded  in the studio..I am trying to do this right and hopefully create a polished music video with my words and music to entertain you all.
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I wrote the Green Screen poem  last month, January 5th and it has since morphed into what you will see and hear in my video. As you know, I always made videos with my partner Natascha Randt (Allah yirhamha)who passed away this last September 2021. I did the soundtracks and not the visuals in our productions,
I know this one won’t be as polished, but with my humble video program (iMovie) I will do the best I can. I am hoping this will be ready for YouTube in the next 2 weeks (InshAllah)

My dear Second Life friend, Joey TwoShoes, who has been in many of Nat’s and my productions,
is going to be in it too….Crossing fingers.
So please forgive me if I am a little slow in catching up to all you are posting and creating…
I will and am going to dedicate a full day to doing that soon:)
I’m looking forward to inviting you all to my YouTube debut of Green Screen very soon:)
Stay Tuned!!

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Leaves of Mercy

Ant on a green floating leaf on blue water

Ant on a green floating leaf on blue water

Leaves of Mercy

I am the one who saves
all the insects
from drowning in the pool.
Their flailing little
legs and wings,

gleaming in the sun,
twinkling like stars floating
on a turquoise sea.
I will interrupt my laps
a hundred times
a thousand times,
skimming a leaf from the surface
I scoop them up so carefully…
Wasps and butterflies, ants and bees….
I make no exceptions
for the ones that sting,
at that moment..
all who are about to drown
are exactly the same to me.
They’re at the very end of life…
panicking,
gasping,
trying with their last breath
to lift off to safety,
but failing.
Desperate and exhausted
some succumb too soon
and can’t be saved.

Then rising from,
the deep end of the pool
(an insects watery grave)
I come to save the day.
I am their towering Superhero
Rescue is my claim to fame.
With leaves of mercy in my hands,
not one insect left behind..
All shivering in the sun,
now drying out on land.
I return to the depths,
lap number 51…
smiling under water,
the whole twelve meter length..
Lives were saved today…
another job well-done.

Karima Hoisan
February 11, 2022
Costa Rica

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Blue Glass Bottle

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Blue Glass Bottle

I pour my heart out to the sea
standing on a dock
waving to the ship that
just set sail to parts unknown.
You are standing on the deck;
you,
who have been really loved
in life and yet today
you leave alone.

I finish scribbling
down my thoughts

and as there is
no script
I’m sure, that some get lost.
When the ink is dry
I fold it twice,
then wrap it on my finger
round and round,
slide it in a blue glass bottle,
cork and toss it as the sun
is going down.

With all the faith I have
in life,
the coincidence,
that brought me here
to see you off,
I have no doubt some day
you’ll read my every word
and on some distant shore,
you’ll throw back
my blue glass bottle
full
of yours,

and it will bob and lurch
for weeks on heavy seas.
Then… I know with certainty,
like the stars and moon and trees,
one day when I least expect it,
dancing on the waves
of shallow waters,
your blue glass bottle,
without announcing its arrival

will wash-up at my feet.

Karima Hoisan
February 9, 2022
Costa Rica

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