In The Window

14 In The Window

           ~*~
This is the Recording I made Live at a Reading in 2010.
I invite you to listen as it was written to be performed to music.

In The Window
(for umahmad)


…and there I am again,  standing in the window
while you walk away.
You glide along the pavement,
smooth,
a tide rolling out to sea,
but how you forgot to tell me,
that this was goodbye
and all that I had treasured and lived 
in these past years, was just a lie.
You forgot to prepare my heart,
and you never set my table
for your plate of loss,
bitter,
tasteless and endless
day after day.

I ate the same thing over and over,
and every meal I felt your missing,
until I lost all hunger,  
lost my joy,
lost my reason,
watching you walk away the day…
the day you forgot to say goodbye.

Years went by,
and how many sighs, how many tears?
The perfume left the flowers, 
the breeze stopped carrying memories.
All that was left to do in this life,  
now disarmed, 
was to lay on the ground and write my poetry;
but no words can paint the desperate deepness of the wounds
that were made that day you walked away,
and said,
“I will be back soon.”

I watched the solid tracks,
derailed in an upheaval, an earthquake,
truth turned upside down
until it looked like a lie.
Oh my other self,
how could you walk down that street,
 
and look back at me waving to you and not feel,
right then,
what you must have known I was about to feel?!
Oh my mated soul how could you not know my pain, 
to watch you disappearing slowly around a bend,
dissolving out of view…..?!

Tears never did clean the sense of being thrown back alone
to
the growls and drawn drapes
of the upstairs bedroom.
Poems strewn out over years…
papers blowing in the air of my unanswered prayers…
Oh my unique, my one, why did you go this way?!
What voice did you hear that drowned out my lover’s call? 
Calling out over the peeling  garden wall,
now running to the gate,
begging you to return and stay,
before it was too late…

All has past and all has changed
and part of you returned one day,
but part of you, never found its way back home…
The one who loved my laugh, my poor Arabic,
and my hand in hers
 as we promenaded the streets,
fresh bread in our bags….
That one never returned!

Oh! Where did she go? the dancer on the rooftops,
with her audience of one, cross-legged, sipping tea
realizing; she had become a part of me.
Why did you leave me this way?
Standing in an open window,
children playing below me in the streets,
imagining what it would feel if you didn’t return,
knowing somehow, this was already happening.
I waved to you;
you looked back and you knew
what I had yet to know,
your path would not cross mine again
for an endless but endless time.
Where are the sounds to put down what was unuttered?
Maybe only the music can play this scene
in the way it must be played,
lamenting from the inside out
of each string,
of each deep note, of each vocal plea…
No curtains in the window anyway,
wide open as I was,
and if I would  have asked you before you slipped away,
could you have changed our fate and stayed?
Do you know how many times I saw it this way? 
by changing  just one day.. my life your life
and all those
caught in our weave,
would have had so much less to grieve?

In the window, my eyes follow the part of me I loved the best,
the soulmate of my reborn days,
healer of my pain, sharer of my beauty, 
you habibiti, the  soul mated to me,
the gift that must never be returned,
the gift that pulled at me until I reached out
to touch the frosted pane, 
Looking through the glass at winter rains,
spring green glow,
dust and sand of summer storms,
year after year,  
searching for that reverse vision,
footsteps in my direction,
the never ending  hope you might return,
in the same way that you left…
but nothing in our life’s album stays the same,
pictures on every page shift and change. 
At some point, we must close the window,

turn ourselves around…. and walk away.

 

Karima Hoisan
Written in 2005 Jordan
Recorded in 2010  SL

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This Poet Swimming Laps

Pool blue tiles

                                                                           My Pool

This Poet Swimming Laps

The early sun peeks through the cloud bank
“Thank God it might warm up the water”
The light sparkles on the ripples
that the jets shoot across the pool.
They twist in sinewy sea serpent shapes,
while my forearms cover themselves in bumps…
“Oh My God….. it’s so cold”
But I’m in the water up to my neck now,
determined to swim that mile.
Confident that 10 laps make 120 meters
100 laps will bring me to the mile.

The breaststroke is a nice beginning
The heart just kicks in little by little..
I hardly feel a thing..
The water is so clear,
I could count the little Moroccan tiles
the color of a Tangier mosque design,
if I open my eyes, but I just peek now and then.
I don’t have to see where I’m going…I know
9 strokes take me to the other side.
I just count 1 -2 -3..the other side is odd where I start is always even…
odd and even, I start thinking about odds..
What are the odds?…
I saw a colony of Leaf Cutter Ants
carrying leaves along the border of the pool..the odd side
where ants march daringly,
right on the border,  I mean what are the odds?
I would see them a year from now..

what are the odds I’ll still be alive?
I allow myself to rest 5 seconds for observing but only after
9 on the odd side where the ants march
“Some are such slouchers,they carry tiny flowers,
while others haul leaves the size of a house”
5 seconds are up..one more breaststroke..10 laps equal 120 meters
I will be 1/10 through…  and it seems a long way off!

I’m feeling good and turn it on with a fast long stroked crawl..
free stroking, reaching for the other side,
my mouth barely surfacing on the left,
two long strokes… now right..hauling in the oxygen
while skimming the surface, half my chin submerged.
Light and water were made to play togethe,and
I am streaking undulation ..up for air, down for speed..
but so imperceptibly…
you just see me glide silently/

600 meters and I’m on my back..long back stroke,
hoping my shoulders hold;
the sun plays orange and red fire on my eyelids.
The trees branches cut the light, adding their shadow but just on one side.
I think of 20 things that must be done…
My mind falls into shopping lists and unanswered emails
Boring!
but I also ponder if dead people visit swimmers?
because we are so spaced..
in that zone that dreamers and mediums go to..
7- 8 on the boring even side..then back to 9 and I know the ants are there..
but I turn under water and pretend I don’t.
Another 10 and I cheat with a side stroke.. then back to the crawl..my heart is a locomotive…
It’s  a Swiss time piece;
its a Grandfather clock-click with the rhythm of a teen.
and it only chimes at 1200 meters.!!
Cold? There is no cold.
I am warm and I heat the water as I move through it..
I am like an electric piston, and a watermill,..
a solar heating system with my arms going round and round.
1000 meters I am almost there..just 20 laps,
I have lost my sense of time..just lost in this stream of thoughts
of strokes of everything,
on spinal chord remote…
my brain shut down to just pump blood to those shoulders these arms stronger but straining.

Now… I am on the last stretch,
a quick change -up and I finish on 2 laps of the fastest crawl I can do..
my heart is pumping pumping, pumping….
“I can do it I can do it I will do it”

There!!!!…
I throw my self backwards..and float and say,
 “Alhamdulillah for this day”
 “Alhamdulillah  for this pool,
 “Alhamdulillah for my health”
 “Alhamdulillah for my Life”
that I am able to swim ….
and the light dances on my eyelids..
and the endorphins swim up and down my bloodstream
and I am so grateful!!
and then, I pull myself out of the pool..
EXHAUSTED…

Earth’s gravity is not my friend..
and grab my cane.

I might limp the next 30 meters to my shower.
But…….ahhhhhhhh..
I just swam one glorious mile!🏊‍♀️🏊‍♀️🏊‍♀️🏊‍♀️🏊‍♀️🏊‍♀️🏊‍♀️🏊‍♀️

Karima Hoisan
July 27, 2021
Costa Rica

 


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The Story of Maktoob (“that which is already written” )

Sometimes we actually notice when we have been given a gift, that had our name on it.

Little Maktoob is one such gift.
About 2 weeks ago, I heard a small kitten crying in my backyard. My first reaction was,”I hope he doesn’t run into the dog” (a pitbull who has killed cats before)
and
“I hope it keeps on walking to the next house, as I have 2 cats already and really don’t want a third”
He cried all night and in the early morning light, I saw a scrawny grey and white kitty, in the low branches of a mango tree, right in front of my window.
I thought, poor thing, I wonder how he even got here?”
WhatsApp Image 2021-07-14 at 2.49.33 PM
                                                              Maktoob’s 1st Picture

I put him in a box and gave him some food that he gobbled up immediately
and brought him inside.
My plan was to feed him and look for a good home, even pay a Vet for a checkup and  deparisite him, etc………. that was before I learned the truth of his arrival.

Later we found a sack ripped open and 3 brothers and sisters scattered around the yard dead…killed by the dog. It was so shocking to me..an image I try not to let replay in my mind…..but by then I knew he was mine. He was destined to be  mine as he survived a massacre and “it was already written” that he would  live with us.. Maktoob!!
I won’t even dwell on what kind of heartless person would throw a sack of helpless kitties in a yard with pitbulls…but they obviously did that on purpose😢😠😔
Maktoob beat the odds. He climbed a tree! He is a survivor! He is ours and we will make sure his life is full of love and security.

WhatsApp Image 2021-07-23 at 4.44.24 PM

WhatsApp Image 2021-07-22 at 12.52.52 PM
He has already started to play the piano(in the background:)

bettsApp Image 2021-07-23 at 5.09.22 PM
…and use my face as his favorite pillow:)

Maktoob!!!

 


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Fat Cat (I Couldn’t Resist:)

Filmed from my bedroom-That’s a Chacalaca trying to eat:)  Enjoy!!

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You and The Moon

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You and The Moon
For U.

24 hours and counting down,
before the next full moon,
I find myself clinging to the “i’s”
and crossing the “t’s.”
The wind is a flute,
that plays from every direction,
the poppy fields wave in the breeze;
living life inside a poem,
is almost always beautiful
and almost always lonely.

If there were someone else to share this with,
I doubt that I’d be writing.
Instead, I would be tracing our figures in the shadows,
upon the castle wall,
walking with you holding hands,
the desert air so sterile and clean,
like fluorescent sheets in the moonlight,
blowing on the line.
Not one cloud to disturb
this moon,
this mood,
this moment
of pure love.

Poetry is just poor company,
a stand -in,
a rebounding second best.
Although it’s true my blood runs through each verse;
where is the harmony?
There’s no one now to share my breath,
I just breathe each one to stay alive
I take each step, to put a little distance
between me and your untimely death.
Nine years now and still you ask for one more poem
in a field of red flowers with the moon on high,
What can I do?….but acquiesce.

Old tears,
that have already been cried,
have no place running down my cheeks.
Go save them in big books
of pressed flowers,
that stale smell of faded perfumed lace.
Even if you are but a memory,
some nights, like this,
bring you back to the living-side.
It is never my idea…
I have done well enough without you;
no, its always you and the moon,
who start it all over again.

Karima Hoisan
July 22, 2021
Costa Rica

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ReCap & Recording of The Chelsea Hotel Reading -7-18-2021

KH@TCH

 “Thank you to Keyah Kyomoon for this composite ” 


Please Click this link to hear a recording of my Reading yesterday at the Virtual Hotel Chelsea: Recording
It was a fun reading with about 25 people at the venue and 5 more on the public stream.
I gave some shout-outs to my readers who I thought, might like to hear the recording!
I will include a few pictures and let the recording speak for itself… Thank you Sannie and
Natascha for taking pictures❤️

Night birdde3
                                               “Are you the lullaby of sapphire skies?” (photo by Sannie)

night bird_006Night Bird by Natascha
lightness7

The Lightness of Ramadan (photo by Sannie)

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I shrunk and was made into a table-sized performing poet:) (photo by Sannie)

cool buds4

In the budding giant Lilly forest (photo by Sannie)

on stage12

My View of the audience gathering (photo by Sannie)
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      Good room shots by Natascha
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Sunbeam

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The early morning beam of light,
comes in my window to play…
It finds my crystals hanging in the window
and coaxes jets of color to paint my walls..
It passes through prisms tickling the rainbow
reds, yellows and blues until they run away giggling
and smash over my ceiling..

It probes my vase of lilies and says
You think you are orange?
Now look…
as I cover you in light!
This is orange my dear,
not that pale half asleep color you woke up with.
It capriciously fans over the stamens, carpels, stigmas,
making them twist and distort a bit
the stars of each flower,
their inner sanctums shine in the daybreak spotlight.

Who invited you in today?
Did the tree branches sway a bit to get
out of your way?
Is it all a conspiracy of the new day?
the sun in its perfect angle,
the leaves bowing their heads
so you can pass over them?

I surrender to your intent to wake me up,
with colors splashing over my eyes.
I don’t give in to the call of the pillow
that wants to pull me back,
drag me once again, into  the depths of Stygian sleep,

but instead, I smile, not annoyed and say appreciatively,
“Good morning sunbeam!”

Karima Hoisan
July 16, 2021
Costa Rica

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Nightmare in Yellow

Marinela Christel (Lonely Wolf)
index
I met Lonely Wolf on a poetry site in 2004.

We became instant friends and she began sharing her poetry, some of it truly brutal and horrifying with me.I had never read anything like it and it haunted me.

indexyt
Book Cover Art by Lonely Wolf

‘In 2006 Marinela (Lonely Wolf) published “Communist Baby”
It contained some epic poems she wrote about being orphaned and surviving in Transylvania Romania and her forward she says:

“I was born in Transylvania, Romania, in a town surrounded by the Carpathian Mountains, named Sibiu. I spent my childhood in a childless environment, dodging the communist regime, successfully most of the time. I lost my parents and most of my relatives by the time I was a preteen, and my poetry and paintings back then, and even now, reflect the pain and longing for the missing loved ones. At the age of 18, I got married and was whisked away to America while communism was at its height in Romania. My experiences in two distinct cultures gave me a view of the world that at times might seem biting, but it is as honest as I see it. Memories linger, return, and disappear, yet I have learned a very precious lesson; we are survivors many times over. I want to thank you for reading my verses, and if I inadvertently offended anyone on my way to freedom of thought, I apologize.
Lonely Wolf ”
I only have this verse of hers, from the Surrender Series that I can share …. her book is out of print and I lost touch with her. over the years.

SURRENDER TO HATE

a little one in a communist country

Months passed and daddy didn’t shout.
Mom had no bruises, I went back to school.
Peace didn’t find me, I knew what’s all about.
Daddy had many women, behaving like a fool!

Communist slogans flying, sung in one loud voice,
First of May, parades to watch, yet not march in.
Daddy was questioned; at school I had no choice
But to stand in corners, not show my face, my sin!

I hated all his women, I hated all my schoolmates!
I hated empty bottles that mom left all around!
I hated all my neighbors who locked me out of gates,
I couldn’t reach my cot; to hate I did give ground!

My body shaking, cries muted, they shaved my head!
Hospital staff forcefully fed me, upon daddy’s request.
Saturday May morning, they found my father dead!
Mom cried, I cried for her; perhaps now we can rest…

No husband, no more father is such a crying shame!
Dressed all in black and starving worse than before
Mom met a widowed man; once more I was the game.
Pawn to be shifted, here and there; hate to the core!!!

It didn’t last too long before this dad was killed too.
I held his bloody neck and tried to pull the knife.
I woke up two days latter, washed off the sticky goo
And mommy was in black again, nobody’s wife…

No one set home, no school, no mates; a crazy kid!
Math teacher feeling my budding tits and skinny ass.
Please, help me God, no more! Whatever that I did
Don’t make me suffer longer, I’m just a scared lass…

I hate my body, just bluish skin and jutting bones!
I hate my mind, too petrified to say another word!
I hate my days, my nights, all filled with moans
Red, hazy lights, spread all around my gourd!

I hate this hate! I long for peace and gentle love…
Sleep won’t come, fear covers me in a frozen sweat.
That knife is big, I’ll fall and it will surely shove
Through hateful heart I’ve grown. That was my bet!

by lonely wolf

Author’s Comments:
“I am sorry if this is disturbing to some. It is the purging. To this
day nobody really knows who killed my father. He was found incoherent
in his hospital duty room on May 6th and the idiots took him to
another hospital to save him . He died on route. We lost the
government subsidized housing and ended up living in the streets,
under bridges. Mom met a very nice man while working. They got
married. He was killed by someone in his native village. Mom and I
went there in the middle of the night, in time to say goodbye, I
fainted and didn’t wake for 2 days, forgotten in a corner by the
grieving family.Mom started to drink just before daddy died. She was
never sober after the second husband died and never wore anymore
color, just black. My father had many mistresses he used to bring home
and kick me out when mom was at work. I never said a word, because I
didn’t want ,Mommy to get mad and get beat up again by him. My eyes
grew hooded, my trust diminished to zero. An unmarried or widowed
woman, back then, was a disgrace and something to be spit upon. Never
mind a child without a father!All the adults were nuts, the communists
were nuts and because of my father who was anti communism I was
ostracized. I was living in a world of nuts and they were calling me
nuts. A 9 year old. I had to live up to labels, so my stepfather’s
knife was the solution. I didn’t want to disappoint anyone, still
don’t… Now, they were right! I was nuts! To be continued…”

In 2005 I wrote this poem Nightmare in Yellow” I share it with you now, because I have never written anything like it before or after. I literally felt almost possessed by her history when I wrote it. I gave it to her and she was very moved.

Nightmare In Yellow
for lonely wolf

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Now, a child’s point of view
I peer out from deep inside
stricken, numb, impotent, dumb
for I am not a child
and these are not my eyes.
If I had a box of crayons
the only one I’d chose,
is the sunlight stick
with small black bands
to draw her as she grew

Yellow is the color of the cowards
certainly she is not among them.
Her hero’s gait against her fate
gives witness to her strength,
the skinny posturing bold and straight,
her tight lipped gaze not winsome.

Yellow is the color of the foil wrap
which held the lilacs tight inside their vase,
and from that child’s weeping rims,
I see my mother’s saddened face.
Her mothers broken limbs produce in me,
confusing imagery of time and space.

At her hapless mother’s breakdown,
baton twirling guards march with the band,
while my mom makes a leap from her wagon,
scotch and water with ice in her hand.
But we are still a long time away from
the Gypsies helping hand
or the straggly girl lifting weights
and drinking booze
a knife held tight,
as protection in her land

I come alone to hug her,
to quash the memories of lunatic nights.

Staring from her upstairs window
she paces back and forth,
the yellow in her eyes now waxing bright,
from so much misfortune,
locked inside uptight.
Back and forth her bony haunches lead
her pacing moves her out the door ,
I’m there too her glitter eyes hook
mine to hers and she to me
and we proceed to scratch and pick
our scabs and open sores

I am now in an unwanted sequel
to a terror tale I’ve already seen
and there’s nothing normal about this film,
forming on the dishes to be served,
horror at its crudest and most real,
like the film that forms on the deadened eyes
of the more than one unfortunate
whose soul now in its hell- hole
rots and squeals.

Yellow card
what’s hers what’s mine
who knows
who even cares.
We hold hands to authority’s sneers
while we’re being beaten and rebuked
We swim breast to breast
upstream then down
and comb each others hair
Brush the longs strands, vigorously
separate the satin from the puke
and now we stop and rest and then we share
two
dead father’s who winked from beyond their graves
two
misfiring hearts
in two
malfunctioning mothers
A book of Edgar Allan Poe
too big
for these little mourner’s hands

and two
stolen swigs of beer
by a nine year old who shudders
While the poor fat rabbits and sheep
of her yellow-jaundiced nation
bleed in the flooded streets
another trick gone bad
in the hands of the crazed magician,
Surreal it’s so unreal!
Yellow flags adorn the palace wall
too much heartbreak
too much drain
abuse, then rebirth
from childhood’s pain
I am not sure what visions are mine at all!
As I crawl through her grey days
her fur now surrounds her,
the communist hallways
of infamy
no longer compound her
Free,
she roams poetic country sides
speaks out, a must, no muzzle she abides.
Beautiful face, her purge of soul, God’s grace
In many ways always alone
I whisper, “Destiny,”
Angry yellow eyes that linger long into the night,
Read to me your poem at this bedside,
come and haunt me”

*Dedicated to my fellow poet Marinela Christel (lonely wolf)

Karima Hoisan
2005
Karak Jordan

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Karima Reads Her Poetry Live @ Virtual Chelsea Hotel SL

HCreading1000

                                   Poster by Natascha Randt
Hi everyone,

I will be doing one of my rare, live on stream, readings this coming Sunday, July 18th at 12:15 pm-12:45 PDT
For my WordPress Family🤗 You can hear me on my internet stream
It’s a good hour for those in Europe and The Middle East,.
I invite anyone who can set an alarm clock and actually be online, this day, this hour, to tune in here on my Internet radio stream.
This Link will take you to my public page Karima’s Stream 
The stream is offline now and will be until 12pm PDT on Sunday
July 18th.

For all you, that might not be able to hear it live, I will record the reading and post it here the next day.
Camel journeys over the Atlantic Ocean are very tiring:)  I hope to arrive in New York, the night before and be alert and at my best by
Sunday at 12:15.

Those of you avatars in Second Life, here is the address to be at:
Virtual Chelsea Hotel
For Those who have never seen me perform, I use music and imagery for every poem…it’s my thing:) I really hope you will enjoy what I do!
Feel free to ask me for a teleport before I start to read;
I would be happy to pull you in.

Looking forward to seeing you all there..at this cool and historical venue in our own Second Life.
Try not to miss this one
Love and hugs,
Karima

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“Float” The YouTube

Hi everyone,

I am sharing a YouTube that I just made today using a poem and soundtrack I wrote back in 2012. I think very few of my readers and friends were following this blog back then, so I decided to make a few screen capture clips of the actual world I built back then on Kitely Virtual Worlds on Demand ( https://www.kitely.com/virtual-world/Karima-Hoisan/Float ) and make it as a YouTube.
This same soundtrack and my voice play automatically when you first land on the Float Virtual World. Dale Innis designed some random scary boats that when you sit on them, go off in any direction and can meet anything swimming under the water. They also tend to sink the more you ride them. Very desconcerting and truly frightening!

This is me at my Goth -Scary side, that I love to do now and then:)  Please play the YouTube and let me know if you felt the mood..muaaah  Could you feel what a true nightmare that would be?
Full Screen and turn up the sound…I wrote the music too (yay me:)😊

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