Invisible Leavings

November 28, 2016, Cairo, Egypt: Broken in silence, and dripping red It ached and twisted but never said A word. Not even a whisper of breath That may uncover all such dread. The way of life is to move on That you would want a break in time Is only good for the dreams of dawn For how could the ticking miss a beat Despite the enormity of your feat Deep in the enormity of your feat Is a heart of hearts, a kindly chap A someone who never felt the pain A someone who wouldn't kill for gain A child of honest means and ends A beautiful stray who lost the beat. How hard you try to stop these sands From sliding through your slender hands But won't you know this now my heart Despite the gravity of your claim Such sands of time care not for pain. (c)

October 2016, Colored Canyon, Sinai, Egypt: ارى حماقات البشر الواهنة تتلاشى شئ فشئ كلما دخلت في احضان الجبل العتيد، فيزول هم الدنيا بيسر توازيه عظمة الخالق البديع المصورة في شقوق الحجر القديم...شقوق كالعشق: باهرة، ماكرة، ساكنة الان بعدما كانت واهجة The deeper I walk into the embraces of the mountain, the less I can see of the follies of human nature. They fade and subside completely, as the burdens of everyday life just lift off my shoulders, in surrender to the majesty of the Creator of such beauty. A beauty manifested in the very fissures of the ancient stone. They are cracks reminiscent of fiery romance: brilliant and treacherous … dormant now, when they were once ablaze.  

July 13, 2016, Cairo, Egypt: Time and time again,  She knew it but looked away  And felt it strike any way For not once did knowing care Nor the child in tow beware  A wider birth still to sail? And not one rocky wave in sight The shore within her arms so tight The going cool and pale Steady, stoic, and placid tides The sons of knowing, daughters of ice Yet the child in wonder wants Not ice, not snow, but fire's taunts. (c)

July 19, 2016, Cairo, Egypt: A small tribute to the different kinds of "angels" all around us... A thousand souls, a midnight sky, A bed of roses yonder. To each their own, afar afar Stars forever wander. No sooner have they sparkled, No sooner have they found A speck of endless wonder, Than they fell to the ground. And when some meager gazes fall Upon their starry dust, "Mere humans they! Oh aren't we all?!" Such fickle ones would lust. But no more human were they once Than human are they now. For touched with light by Mighty Hands My stars, to you I gently bow. (c)                

August 24, Halifax, Canada. About 9:30 pm: We all say things like 'its a beautiful day' or 'today will be lovely', always referring to the day time only in relation to the weather. We never mention the night though. But tonight caught my eye and ear...it's beautiful. Nature seems to be poised for a photograph, and the sounds of the night bring the picture alive. I wonder if anyone else has noticed how harmonious the elements seem tonight, like heaven and earth are in complete peace. Like a perfect song.

August 2017, Halifax, Canada: There are energies associated with places, I have come to believe. The character of a certain venue may not be simply about the light quality, decor, finishing, colors or its smells. I think an important component is its energy, it's own specific vibe. And that is not merely the charge you get off the people that are in that place at the time you're in it; it may also involve the energy left by people who were present in the past. The "invisible leavings" of people, I've star ted to call it in my mind...the ghosts of the place.  Not in a horror movie kind of way, but in the way that you enter a quiet tidy coffee shop and you're struck by an intuition that it was loud a few minutes ago. Or when you go into a room full of coworkers who greet you with perfectly pleasant politeness, but you can tell you've been dissected with their judgement just before you walked in. And in that way that old cities such as Cairo and Alexandri