Green

Sarkis is a boy of seven: Seven years, seven dreams. “Sarkis is sick”, his doctors say. He has seven years to live. Sarkis, however, does not believe in time; he sees no sense in it. He knows of dreams, his mother, the sun, the unlimited universe, love, play, light, and most importantly, he believed in  green.  For a long time now, Sarkis has been spending most his nights on his balcony, gazing at the vast universe, exploring its wonders with his telescope.

One dark night, Sarkis remarked a shimmering light in the distance. The light could be seen to the naked eye, and it was surely shining green. Sarkis grabbed his telescope and spotted a green planet.  That surely was not one of the planets he knew by heart.  Pluto was brownish, Neptune was blue and white, Jupiter was much bigger, Mars was reddish, Mercury was grey and similar to the moon, Saturn was more colorful and Uranus was more plain…wow! That was a new planet he had discovered himself! Now his name will be written in the thick books of knowledge! Now he can make his mother proud forever!

Sarkis went to sleep that night with seven dreams in his heart, and on his mind…he roamed around the sun all the way to visit Green, his own planet,  along with his mother whose hand he put in his all the way.  Everything was fresh green there except for the money, for there was none;  People there offered and received flowers in their daily exchanges.  Even the people themselves were green. Sarkis was amazed because the planet he lived on, the Earth, was plain brown; He saw no green there; his grandfather had told him stories about how the earth used to be called ‘the blue planet’, but Sarkis never saw that blue either!

On Green, there were sparkling streams and glittering blue skies, and green trees stood tall and proud; during his stroll with mum, he met a little green girl. He asked her why everything was so green and fresh-looking.  The girl smiled and told him that everybody on the green planet dreamt of green, ate green, walked on green, worked for green, played with green.  She told him that he could have some green dreams to take with him to his planet if he wanted, and so he did.  Sarkis carried some green dreams in his pocket to give to his friends back on earth .  He shared some with his mum to offer to the neighbors too.  Sarkis also kept a lot of those fresh dreams in his heart, and, in the end, his seven dreams all came true only on his planet, Green.

 

Angelique Fallah,

Feb 29, 2012

A friend

Coffee

a hot summer afternoon

two hearts  on the same ship

friends

casual talk

warm silence

loud laughter

words of wisdom

words of foolish beat

secrets exchanged

genuine smiles

And life is joy again

 

To Lara with love

Anjeoultik

Mind Maze 4/ Rappist

And so I’ve fallen in the trap / Ain’t no time to snap/ nor lose grip on the chance/ to tune for the dance/ strolling down the slope / mind lost in dope/ world crumbled down/ ain’t no time to frown/ nor lament the fools’ play/ ain’t no time to stay/ calm in a trance/ seizing up he stance/ the malicious/ suspicious/ victim-like face/ with foe acting-friend/ bitching-up the scheme/ to redeem or offend/ losers losing track/ stabbing in the back/ the monster in its den/ counting-down to ten/ all gone but one/ solo in the run/ cast in the tact/ of the shameless/ coiled/ act/ tarnished manipulation/ loser/ user/ faking in advance/ flaming-up romance/ craving consolation/ abused by a dad/ desolate and mad/ bankrupt/ handcuffed/ bound in the chain/ the monster shall remain.

Saturday, December 31, 2011

This Lebanon

Stupefaction devoid of action

Just a mumble and a sigh;

When vain is our reaction,

When we do not dare try-

name the wrong to turn to right;

Summoned to the tattered news at night

 to contemplate the hour fly,

Our sullen brains entertained and abused

By every beautifully groomed lie;

Hail and showery rain,

Pricking tunes of minds insane,

Like gravity devour our wits

in crazy and synchronized fits;

Conniving and ignorant at mix

Playing the most foul tricks;

In Lebanon the state is blank {    }

Calamity veiled in uniform prank!

played by fools in formal dress

turning this place to a big disgrace,

to an utterly fatalistic mess.

 

Angelique Fallah       May 6, 2011

Teachers

I like the teacher who smiles. I like the teacher who cares. I like the teacher who nurtures the students’ intelligence and independent learning. I like the teacher who nurtures students’ affection. I like the teacher who models and teaches values. I like the teacher who inspires benevolence. I like the teacher who always shows high expectations from her students. I like the teacher who provides a safe learning environment where every student is respected. I like the teacher who models democracy. I like the teacher who promotes the well-being of her students…Those are the teachers we need in order to make a positive difference in this world…

My Georges

Just walk the mile and leave a trail

of beauty in essence and in hue,

Blow your wind and stir your sail

and all the world shall follow you

 

You are a King by nature ordained

of hearts that heal and cure,

with a generous hand of no restrain

and emotions so impulsive and pure.

 

My son,

Your light distorts the schemes of this world sunk in darkness. Your positive energy exceeds the expectations of the rumpled and rusted hearts. Your beauty beats all dungeons of obscurity and transcends the shelters and norms where most people sleep safely in vain resignation. Break the norm Son! Be the norm. Be the storm that no barrier can contain. Be the anger, the thirst that quenches and inflicts the pain… of radical change.

I love you and more

Mom

 

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Chant

At the grave flowers rest in peace

Faithful guardians of antic dreams

Ashes and dust turn yellow and green

By April magic hand unseen;

Rising above the velvety sky,

An angel’s wing flutters by

Guiding the soul drifting in light,

To be soon forlorn and out of sight;

Sparkles of stars sprayed in tune

Roses and violets sprout in June,

Hyacinth, lavender stretch an arm,

Their misty odours spent in charm;

A lonely shadow peeks an eye

His lavish tears clear the sky

Showers of love lost in foul air,

In search for hands to feel and care

A blizzard turns the scene to frost,

In the misty fog shadows are lost

Shivering, cold, frail and grey,

Kneeling in the blue silence to pray

For harps, cellos, melodies in tune,

To dance in  the light of the solitary moon…

 

Angelique Fallah

Solitary Convenience

Scratches exposed burn in in the sun

Only to redeem the solitary scars

The old ending has now begun

To blossom in solitary convenience,

Stretching strings of tangled woe

Into arms contained by fate

Buried in time

Out of date

Breeding silence in the barren mind

In smoking ashes trail behind

Rising bare in sweet deceit

Hastingly embraced in swift defeat,

Glazing smiles in rust remain

Wastes of torments spent in vain.

Tears drowned in the treasured cup

Entangled fears that never stop-

Beating in misty and hollow ground

Hope always missed

Never found

 

Angelique

 

Friday, Oct 29, 2010

Freedom

What is freedom? Freedom cannot be equal to chaos.It is first, an act of reciprocal responsibility. I, as a human being, cannot be free if I do not recognize that I have natural rights that are to be respected and fought for in order to be preserved. Those rights are essentially my voice and dignity.My freedom is not achieved, however, if I do not teach my fellow citizens that they, too, have the same rights as mine to fight for, and that I, shall fight with them because our cause is one. That is how I see and try to live FREEDOM. I live it at home, with my children. I listen and I give value to every word and act. If I hurt their feelings, I apologize. If they are asking a lot of questions, even when I am so worn out and busy, I answer; I respond, for I am afraid that if I don’t, I might be murdering their epistemological curiosity, and most importantly, their sense of initiative.I never treat my children as inferior;I show them, on the contrary, that they are reasonable and fully responsible human beings. Respect is timeless and ageless, and so is responsibility. I cannot, at any moment, neglect my essential role in empowering my children’s minds with the right mental tools they need in order to fulfill their freedom. Critical thinking , critical questioning, critical argumentation and negotiation…those higher-order thinking capacities have to be taught, both at home and in educational institutions. Someone needs to explain to the children that no one has the right to underestimate their intelligence or common sense. We need, as parents, to start respecting our children, by fostering their intelligence and by modeling the essential values we wish them to learn, and on the top of those is Freedom. When our children live in a safe, affectionate, educational, stable home environment; when they have experienced and lived the essence of freedom in their homes, our homes, then , they will be ready to claim their freedom and fight for it. The critical question here is, are we Free in order to teach Freedom?

Perfume

Emerging in Obscurity

Merging with the shimmering light

In flickering illusion

You touch and pound

With hollow sound

The weary heart and bold

Chasing your trail

In the mystic night

Unfinished talk of infatuated eyes

You unleash your spell

And cast the soul,

Wrap the mind with ecstatic balm

Of red musk and vanilla mist

Body in grip

Clutching

upon Oblivion

In painful and forced retreat

You immaculate delusion of Truth!

Thy charm I shall not embrace,

A memory in fold you shall remain

A creased matrix of maddened muse

You flamboyant blaze of enchanted deceit!

Lingering echo of a heart deceased.

 

Angelique Fallah

Feb 2011