#nearness
#I. Nashif
*Beneath the canvas night,
where the lanterns breathe in thin circles
and the sand waits like an unstruck drum,
a nearness begins..
--the slow tilt of warmth toward warmth,
like two notes
finding resonance across an unseen chamber.
In that tilt,
substance loosens.
Contours soften into rising mist.
What wished to be held
ascends in delicate spirals,
slipping between the hands
before the hands even close..
No breaking
Only the gentle drying of presence,
the becoming-light
that deserts have always understood.*
II. Rajjūʿ
*Later,
in the hush that follows the wind’s retreat,
something gathers.
Not shadow,
but a thickness in the air..
a recognition rising from the cooled earth
as though memory were learning
how to take breath again.
Nothing arrives.
Yet still..
there is a density forming
where absence had been.
What dissolved
begins to hum in the stillness,
a frequency neither near nor far,
only inevitable.
Neither reunion
nor solace..
merely the soft reassembling
of what distance could not unmake.*
III. Nūr-Sibil
في البعدِ نعومةٌ لا تُرى
وفي القربِ ظلٌّ يعودُ بلا خطوات
وما تفرّقَ في الريحِ
يعرفُ دائماً طريقَه إلى الضوء.
*(In distance, an unseen softness.
In nearness, a shadow returning without steps.
What scattered into the wind
always knows its way back to the light.)*
#
Dec 5, 2025
Dec 5, 2025 at 1:38 PM UTC
her eyes awaken before dawn
while her soul remains in transit
between unity and separation
between a painful, intense longing
and a pretense of indifference
that would temporarily preserve
her sanity.
she walks through crowds
all she sees are sounds and colours
passing by her numbed heart
keeping her head up, she witnesses
the blue horizons scraped by buildings
the zenithen sunlight lining every object
- breathtaken by a suppressed memory,
she unknowingly lets out a silent sigh
in place of an unmentioned name,
deliberately buried deep within.
often, she pauses her thoughts to view
the vastness of the world, in hopes
that it will cause her heart's unspoken
matter to be reduced into insignificance
and she won't have to live the pain
of remembrance.
yet, how could she remove the source
of her heart's peace, and yet, how could she continue living with the torment of distance,
of uncertainty, the eternal fear
that she would be forgotten,
before she forgets.
outwardly, her form is in good health
her speech eloquent, her posture straight
her eyes dry, her walk steady,
yet inwardly, she is paralysed,
her sickness grows each day
and at night, she drowns into
sweet memories of the unmentioned
as she tells herself that his smile will
return...even if only in her dreams.
her eyes close after midnight
while her soul remains in transit
between nearness and distance
between darkness and a light
that would conclude her wait
in all goodness, in peace.
Feb 4, 2019
Feb 4, 2019 at 12:20 AM UTC
I write for you
Of you
Of this nearness to
A life
Our life
And what a perfectly stupid time we could have
Aug 21, 2018
Aug 21, 2018 at 7:44 PM UTC
~ Today
*I did hear you ~
Say distinctly*
I love you . . .
with the cutest
wordplay
wavesvibe
whooshed
Inbetween
The B y k e
Wheels spinnin' franticaly . . . Make me wanna love ya !
May 28, 2015
May 28, 2015 at 2:20 PM UTC
I can barely stand
The nearness of you.
Your sleeping body shifts
And you capture me with slumbering arms.
The warm breath at the back of my neck
Melts the frozen parts of me,
But there is no use for a lukewarm heart.
Can't you see how your fingertips linger
Or how you scorch me with the warmth of your skin?
This closeness could be the end of me.
You, all of you,
Eyes like chocolate
And lips like strawberries,
I want it all.
And your touch
Is driving me mad.
Aug 5, 2014
Aug 5, 2014 at 11:01 AM UTC