The getaway

Sights and sounds from a much-needed weekend getaway.

One year book anniversary (and a freebie for you) – updated

*Updated with link to a Google form, as I received a report that the email link wasn’t working* Almost a year ago, I released the electronic edition of Let it Flow – a ‘best-of’ anthology collecting what I considered my most meaningful poetry and reflections from the previous fourteen years of writing. This November, I’m giving it away for free – if you’d care to answer a few questions.

The Memory of Here and Now

It’s a gift wrapped in a tragedy. Because you are an older Dad – past the half- century mark when the oldest was born – and that clock is ticking ticking ticking. Your time with them is limited. Each minute becomes an hour and each hour a day. You look at them sometimes, full of youth, playing and laughing, and you try to freeze it there – right there. Make the moment hang in the air, suspended. Devote it to memory. Lock it in place.

An Alternate Reality

Have you ever wondered what life would be like if one crucial experience in your history had gone another way? Or if you’d made a different decision at a certain point? We often see this kind of ‘What if?’ scenario in movies or on TV, but do we reflect on the possibilities in our own lives?

Let it Flow: The Life to Come

Once upon a time,
there was a boy who lived all alone.
Up on the 3rd floor,
where the space and time was his own.

But despite his freedom,
the boy lived in a prison:
a set of routines, habits, and permanent preferences
– things he held himself to –
walls of the invisible cage
that had sprung up around him over the years.

These Mountains

A lot can happen in a year. And when we think about all the hours and days and weeks we spent in anguish, especially these past few months, was it worth it? Is it worth it?

We talk about freedom as a construct indicating our capacity to move around and make decisions. But what happens when that’s taken away from us and there’s no recourse or alternatives? No plan B. No contingency.

Let it Flow: Mash

Before I move on,
let me remember the feeling
of being submerged in the biggest part of my planet;
Wave after wave,
gentle and rough,
smoothly-contoured and wildly spread;
Jumping into,
under,
facing head on,
and turning my back;
Being moved by the never-ending forces of push and pull,
so vastly spread in oceans off every land mass in existence.

When giants fall: in memory of Shaykh Abd al-Rasheed Brown

He was 46 years old. A well-known, well-respected religious figure in our community. A man blessed with a love of the Quran – no doubt instilled into him by his father and the Quran-centric environment he had growing up.

Sunrise Reflections

There is no superiority of one race over another. Nor superiority of one gender over another. We are all equal, yet we are diverse.

The rollercoaster of life

Everything happens for a reason…