Wael Abdelgawad's Blog, page 5

Poem: Big Bang

Big Bang. Temperature
beyond measure.
Splitting apart, coming together.
Between inception and conception
a world is born,
a floating feather
on a universal river.
Love is hidden
in its underground
and written
on its clouds.
Love makes it
go around.

* * *

Wael Abdelgawad
Fresno, California
8-25-2015

Down These Mean Streets

“Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. He is the hero; he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor—by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world.

“He will take no man’s money dishonestly and no man’s insolence without...

Poem: Future History

Come now
Arab queen
African dream
Baghdad mystery
future history.

Set your feet on the footsteps –
they’re your own, you just haven’t
made them yet –
that lead to my
sky blue soul
delivered every morning
and a thousand years old.

All I have
is a shrug and a song
a sense of real and wrong
so come on
risk a ride
on the sea train.

* * *

Wael Abdelgawad
Fresno, California
8-25-2015

Poem: The Only Promise I Could Make

I could not build you a castle of pearl.
I don’t shine like Gabriel. We’re all
of the earth. There’s nothing indestructible
inside us but love.

I couldn’t promise
that your eyes
would forget what it’s like to weep.
I couldn’t promise
health, gold or untroubled sleep.
Time runs and overcomes,
breaking all levees,
flooding all homes.

All I could ever promise
was love like a cougar’s heart.
A love that would flow ceaselessly
like the wind on the American prairie.
Two heartbeats in the light and...

Poem: An Expansive Land

Let me still the trembling of your hands
with my own. This is your motherland.
You are home.
How could anyone belittle you?
I am little beside you,
and I do not mind.
I love your glowing mind, your soul
like an expansive land
where you build yourself up
and tear yourself down. You plant
entire forests, paint the sky
red cheeked and laughing,
erect cities and watch them fall.
Your rivers flood, your balance
is overthrown, your crown
half buried in earth. The animals and birds
join in cry and...

Poem: Blame it On Me

“I’m an old tree…”

Blame it on me
if it will bring you peace.
I’m an old tree:
I sway in the breeze,

but I’ve been scorched
by fire and the wars of men
and I’ve rooted day by day.
Blame it on me

but don’t turn away.
Say what you say,
curse my past
but love me today.

When all else fails
blame it on me
and I will press you to my ribs
and love you like the sea.

* * *

Wael Abdelgawad
Fresno, California
January 6, 2013

Bring It In #2

Bring it in, bring it in.
I’m not here to sin
but to kiss your mind –
your alive as the Amazon,
pouring out poetry
like feathers over Angel Falls,
humble through it all
mind. Not for a day or a night,
but all through this bright
campaign. This vagabondage
of grief and faith.
Bring it in O bright-eyed worshiper
of God, and save my soul.
You could not be more beautiful.
Become my twin,
and let us walk the deep path
to the high path.
I know the math.
I don’t deserve you.
I’ve taken blows
and hur...

Poem: I Promise

I can’t promise never to hurt you,
but I promise anyway,
because that’s what people do.
It’s late, and the moon through the window
is almost full, like a person striving
to get life right, but not yet there.
Your breathing is a constant,
like the music of the night air,
and the buzzing of a crane fly at the window.
I can’t promise never to hurt you
but I do promise it,
I do.

* * *
Wael Abdelgawad
September 15, 2016
Fresno, California

Poem: I hear you’ve been looking for me

I hear you’ve been looking for me.
I’m still here, living free,
eating ash and sand,
rubbing it into my wounds,
teaching people to fight,
or to think – and aren’t those
the same thing?

I hear you’ve been asking about me.
I was away,
walking a jungle path,
staying quiet so as not to disturb
the rightful owners of the land.
I have nothing in my hand,
nothing up my sleeve
but fire and bile,
song and spit
and a readiness to die.

I hear you don’t love me anymore.
I smile at that, I lick my teeth a...

ISNA 54 Convention 2017

I’m at ISNA 54 in Chicago, where I spoke about the power of fiction to challenge stereotypes and broaden people’s horizons, and in particular to influence the American view of Islam and Muslims – and where of course I promoted my novel, Pieces of a Dream. Umm Zakiyyah, a popular author, was originally scheduled to be my co-speaker but could not attend. At the last minute I found two other published authors to share the stage.

Najiyah Maxfied (author of Sophia’s Journal) is enthusiastic and kn...