Crino-lin-lin-line

Posted on May 23, 2021 by Karima Hoisan

Please play this music so you will see how it totally transported me and inspired my poem:)


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Crino- lin- lin -line!
Puffs your sleeves like shoulder clouds as you weave in and out…
Dancing tight and light, twirling like colorful sand devils
around the park  or the gymnasium….
It’s Mexico..It’s Brooklyn, It’s an Albanian Wedding Party; its wherever your mind goes with this music, that dances you out of your daily death rattle…
your boring modern moment.
Your espresso, 3 -decker sandwich, 15 minute coffee breaks..
Stuff it in your face and dream of parading hands held high around the floor
No… no…no… no more!!

Put on your Crin- o- lin- lin- line!
Bells and bodices, wrapped in silk belts and layer after layer…
Embroidered  tassled vests, graceful booted feet in velvet….
Ahhhhh swoon with me!
This beat is playing our song… whirling skirts of purple orange and green
Starch a white shirt, grab a black vest,
white pants with embroidered cuffs and run out the door.
Hold that beauty in scarf and headdress and swing her around the floor
Go back in time..when just dancing could keep you alive…
Kick out!  Shout out!!.. flashing all those smiles of pretty pearly white.
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Remember your youth? Promise me you won’t forget this Brass section…
That carries you between Mexico and the Bronx, between Brooklyn and
The Adriatic and Ionian Sea in Mariachi style in the most beautiful  ironic harmony…
Dance it with me…Hold me tight…
Swirl me and twirl me.. I am what you are feeling against you…
a rotating energy that lights up your night.

You want to know me when I have my spark inside?
Dance and sing along… Crino-lin-lin-line
Is this not the music, the golden elixir we were waiting for?
To lift our souls from the shadow of the plague and sing our praises,
that we are still alive…but weep openly and copiously our tears,
 for those who no longer and never will again…dance by our side?

When Death comes to me, just let me die on this brass rift; lift me high as we all snake down the street led in some hybrid Tirana-Conga dance.
I go so happily all the way to my tomb, carried on this song,
as day’s end is descending, over the Adriatic Sea.

Karima Hoisan
May 23, 2021
Costa Rica

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The Spark

Posted on May 21, 2021 by Karima Hoisan

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The Spark

I lost the spark;
believe me, I had kept it forever
and one day…it wasn’t there anymore.

This spark started fires
when the icy winds blew in
It made all the faces glow,
even the ones who were dying
before my eyes.
Rosy cheeked they smiled at me,
while they were slipping away..
Ahh such a spark, only comes once.
It was given to me when I was young…
Such a gift A gift for a Lifetime!

My spark made music
when it was so dark not even
my hand could be found
in front of my face.
It sang me ahead, and I took each step,
knowing I was not being led astray.
Those moonless nights, the towering trees
that spark was a small beacon of sound;
each time I found myself in darkness…
I followed it to safety, fearlessly.

Crazy as it sounds,
that spark, early on,
was unknown even to me.
I took everything as a random
event, wandered through life,
without getting off my knees.
Then one day, in the most extraordinary way
It declared itself: I stood up
and people saw it in me,
like a lighthouse, my eyes turned from cynical
to wide awake and sparkling bright!

After that, I did live a pretty charmed life,
lucky in love and lucky to be alive.
So,I could never imagine the day,
my spark seemed to stay behind.
I lost it.
I had not thought about it,
over decades of familiarity.
If you take too much for granted,
it could start floating out to sea.
I just felt this wave of dullness
one day, wash over me;
when I finally dared to check…
the spark, that I called mine,
was no longer with me.

Karima Hoisan
May 21, 2021
Costa Rica

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In Dreams

Posted on May 18, 2021 by Karima Hoisan

ea1c728bba743aeaca46b547352864c8 2“just like it was taught to me…”

In my dreams, I can run
and I run up unknown stairs, flight after flight.
I talk to people in crowded city streets…
No one wears masks, and we have not yet had a plague.
People are in motion, hopefully making plans, breathing the air
which grows purer and less polluted while they talk and smile.
Depression is a thing of the past, as we all get out of ourselves
and help those around us. We begin to love to talk to strangers
and see them more like extended family, than unknowns.
There is no war, no killing, no misunderstandings; guns have not been invented.

In my dreams, of course I fly…not too high, but I taste the grace and freedom.
I happily teach others how to do it too… just like it was taught to me.
We all throw ourselves forward and we don’t hit the ground, but hover and ascend
We fly low, the wind blowing our hair, about the height of a stoplight.
The thing that really strikes me, is how we all giggle like a flock of parakeets.
We experience this euphoria together as we all let go and trust each other.
We trust this collective miracle that defies gravity and liberates our souls
still in our bodies, but less burdened and heavy, unencumbered and feather -weight.

Then I awake.

Karima Hoisan
May 18,2021
Costa Rica

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Eid Mubarak! Eid Sayeed!

Posted on May 12, 2021 by Karima Hoisan

From My House to Yours!

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Blessed Eid!  Happy Eid!
In Second Life, Come visit me the next 3 days!
Ask me for a teleport…and I will beam you up!

GoselaParty_007

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My Poem, “The Lightness of Ramadan” on Spillwords Press

Posted on May 11, 2021 by Karima Hoisan

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Hi everyone,
I know this poem recently appeared on my blog, but in a beautiful irony,
Spillwords decided to post it today, on the last or almost last day of Ramadan.
Eid -ul-fitr will begin, inshallah, tomorrow or Thursday and our month of fasting ends.

Thanks once again to Spillwords Press for accepting another one of my poems.
You can see it on their page,and if you chose, may give it a ❤️:)
Here is the url to read it on their press: https://spillwords.com/the-lightness-of-ramadan/

Ramadan Kareem! Ramadan Mubarak!

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Night Bird

Posted on May 3, 2021 by Karima Hoisan

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Night Bird

The night bird singing her heart out, right before the dawn;
who can hear you now?
Someone bowing to say their prayers, or an owl on the prowl?
Yet, you choose to serenade the world while it sleeps.
Are you the lullaby of sapphire skies,
when the capricious moon peeks and hides?
Are you the voice of our collective dreams,
the town crier’s rhythmic sighs, as he lumbers through the streets?
Those trilling tones, the ups and downs,
while we are tucked in beds, so sound asleep.
Do you rock us in your cradle song,
swinging us safely in the highest boughs?
Dull brown bird like wet clay, you sing in vibrant color,
If it begins to rain, the soft drops peppering the leaves;
your notes, change each, into small crystal tears,
that reflect the street lights as they patter my pane.
Glorious bird, you are the Diva of my neighborhood.
You grace the mango tree and sing like a soprano
who plays the poor orphan, dressed in rags of dreary feathers,
whose form, disappears against the trunk, as boring as the bark,
but whose song, even heard in unconsciousness, is never forgotten.

Karima Hoisan
May 3, 2021
Costa Rica
*Footnote: The Yiguirro, our National Bird, is the Diva of our neighborhood:)

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April 18th

Posted on April 18, 2021 by Karima Hoisan

Hoisan Family Monument LINC Island SL

Hoisan Family Monument LINC Island SL

This post was first published in 2013.

My father died on April 18th, when I was twelve years old. This is the first poem I have ever written about that, and it is more than a few decades later. Every April since, I have felt like I might write something…and then I never do. It was time.
What does this have to do with Second Life? On my sim, LINC Island, I have made a family memorial and this is what is engraved on my father’s side. Through the wonders of our virtual world, I can lay flowers on his grave, even though I am thousands of miles away from where he is buried, and this year I will also place this poem.
Please take the time to click on the .mp3 link entitled April 18th by Karima Hoisan.mp3.
I composed the music for this too. Maybe enjoy is not the right word, but I hope you can feel this one, and I am sure some might even relate.

April 18th by Karima Hoisan.mp3

You once whispered this to me,
“We will have eternity,
so dry your tears,
and while you’re waiting,
live your life my daughter,
then come and talk to me.”

So much time has run behind,
my questions I had saved to ask
are not the ones, I had that day, when I was twelve
and you were lowered down into the ground.

But then you came to me in dreams,
You said, “Don’t touch me, I’m not yet real.”
“I hover here because you are so young
and I am sorry I could not stay to see you grow.”

So some days, I feel the bleak is calling out,
I feel tired of it all, and I miss you as if you’d died last night,
and eternity seems a long way off, an endless wait
and in some ways, I’m still that little bud too fragile.

Life has showered me with wild flowers
and  sometimes bathed my hopes in hopeless rain.
 An adult, I can still see the road that brought me here,
so I write new questions, I would like to ask you on that day.

Does a girl ever grow up, if her father is not there to see?
Is she not a tree in the forest of first love’s loss, falling and no one hears her?
and history shifts to what it was not going to be
and really, as I get older, it’s getting harder for me to wait to see you.

I try not to cry, when someone stands in front of me and says your name.
I know that it’s approaching, that time, when once again I’ll be your little girl.
I want to tell you my mistakes, what made me laugh and why I was still crying.
To sit upon your lap and then, Oh Daddy!
all the time in the world is what you promised me.

Karima Hoisan
April 14th, 2013
Rest In Peace, LINC Island

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This Too Is An Act of Charity

Posted on April 17, 2021 by Karima Hoisan

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When you put down your phone a minute
and go to you grandmother’s room,
and sit in a chair close by her bed, and ask her,
“Gramma, tell me how it was, before?… before all the cars
and sickness and internet; tell me how you rode your horse everywhere
and there was fish in the sea for everyone?“
If you do that willingly… you will learn many new things
while being with her….and; this too is an act of charity

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When you cut up papaya and lay out the bananas whole,
washing the boards so they don’t smell like squirrels…
and you leave the scene alone and wait for the first customer
and there he is, she is, they have been eating all day; they don’t need your food
and yet you offer something they love not growing on the vine or stalk right now,
a dessert, a soft banana or papaya pudding for babies to gobble up easily…
and you never expect them to pay you back … this too is an act of charity.

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When you walk in the streets, mask in place, keeping your distance
and you see people busy and people afraid to be out.
You come across such white faces, that never see the sun.
You pass by people breathing big sighs, just to be outside again…
and in all this hustle bustle, you choose a face, standing maybe in a doorway,
or you see a face waiting to cross the street and even with your own face hidden
by your mask, you give them the brightest smile, your eyes twinkle and curl
at the corners, until there is no doubt you are smiling at them, because their eyes  smile and crinkle back at you; even this is an act of charity.

Karima Hoisan
April 17th 2021 (Ramadan)
Costa Rica

 

*Footnote In Ramadan we are asked to consciously be more charitable.
“And, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said, “Smiling in your brother’s face is an act of charity” (At-Tirmidhi; Declared Authentic by Al-Albani)

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The Lightness of Ramadan

Posted on April 14, 2021 by Karima Hoisan

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The Lightness of Ramadan

The lightness of Ramadan,
is like a gossamer blowing randomly in a breeze,
like walking on the moon, gravity barely touching me.
springing then floating with every step..and stopping
to just look and see, all that was missing,
when I was so caught up.
preparing eating, digesting,
that I couldn’t perceive the true aspects,
the colors and depth of anything around me.

Before breaking the fast, everyone is someone else..
Each of us, is changed,
some crankier, more impatient, some docile, some sleepier,
but I am lighter, a spiritual airhead transcending the afternoon.
Lighter, like the paper lanterns swinging in circles, from their strings
like the plastic bags in Jordan, blowing high in the air,
like circling black birds in the desert gusts, of those other-worldly afternoons.
Lighter, as if walking under water…without some mundane thoughts and weights,
I would float away.
Listening to the Quran being recited,
the chanting seems to come from within, and rumbles through me,
as I listen, as I stop to pray as I stop to just feel the day;
every moment is a moment of awareness, a moment of truth .
I am like almost nothing now,
just some thoughts enclosed in wispy feathers…
a spiritual bird who flies higher… the less it eats.

Karima Hoisan
April 14th, 2021 (Ramadan)
Costa Rica

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My Poem, “Attitude,” On Spillwords Press

Posted on April 14, 2021 by Karima Hoisan

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I am once again very grateful to Spillwords Press for publishing my fourth poem,
“Attitude” on their site. I invite my readers to visit their site and read it there….
Attitude can be everything…can’t it?
Click the link to read “Attitude” on Spillwords Press

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