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it’s not red, but this is the red sea on the shore of jeddah, saudi arabia. photography by ssj
is the wave
that creates the wave
that creates the wave
that creates the wave
that reaches my feet
the same wave
that reaches my feet? -
two views about the semicolon, excerpted unfinished business
the semicolon is unfinished business;
(more…)
don’t use it if you are not willing to deal
with unfinished businesses;
an invitation you cannot refuse
to take a leap beyond the known
to explore what lies ahead;
a separation that does not divide
but rather bonds
those which are separated;
know that it can become
larger than life and cannot
be bothered even by death;
a flow greater than itself
rolling waves on a quest
to bring us closer home;
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Picture is a mashup from Pixabay.com images contributed by Stefan Keller, Erik Reichenbach & Ulrich B. scoria
oh, to bless the meek,
to inherit the earth,
to drown our hearts
in the raging sea.
to teach a man how to beg
and he will learn how to smile.
to teach a man how to fish
and he will learn how to kill.
and the bottom of our cup
remains fathomless as can be.– © said sadain 2019
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An invitation to a place of more understanding and less fear
A Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta (UUCA) talk about Islam by Rev Dr. M’ellen Kennedy“…We are being whipped up into fear of Muslims. And when we are afraid…. we’re operating out of just that reptilian part of our brain…. When we are afraid we don’t have access to our higher functionings, our whole self, the power of the knowledge in our hearts, our whole being, resigned to a small place of living. ….People are afraid of what they don’t understand, so my hope today is to share with you a little bit about what I love about Islam, in order to invite you to a place of more understanding and less fear….”
— Rev Dr. M’ellen Kennedy
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dissection
come brother and feel this pulse
rhyming with the flowing red.
its presence is evidence
that i have a heart like yours.reach closer now and feel me breathe:
this chest heaves
with the warmth of the sunshine
in the morning chill,
it rages in the sultry air of
the noonday heat,
it freezes with the swelling
of the midnight breeze,
its essence is with the sameness
we inhale and exhale. -
a collage of the Christchurch community’s memorial for the 15 Mar. 2019 Al-Noor Mosque shooting victims, images lifted from various internet photos and videos
the seeds
the world is shrinking as we shake
from all the swelling and the aches
the hours are shorter, distances near
for all the borders we hold dear,
and as the world shrinks and squeezes us in
its membranes wrapped over our skins
we grasp for the haka of souls and spirits
to break through the sheaths, to let us breathe.– © said sadain 2019
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image is a mashup of photos by Leo Cardelli and Cristiano Bizzinotto, both @ pexels.com
talking to the sun
the cars stop at red, a momentary block,
as the gaunt but big-boned man
— with sun-baked face and arms,
hair and beard dangling wiry, crinkled
like loose threads of his faded-violet
duffel bag slung on a towering shoulder,
dressed in tattered flowing brown robe
that had long lost its sleeves —
crosses our part of the street on to the middle island
to teeter beneath the traffic light that worries about
the man dancing round its weather-beaten pole.the man’s fierce eyes tell me
not to open my side windows,
as he, a soul from the middle island, shaded
by the red-eye traffic lamp,
raises his hands high to the sky
looking up directly to the morning sun,
alternately shaking his pointy fingers of doom
to shoot down the cosmic glare,
or opening up his fists into a graven cup,
to beseech the sun and his many moons
to come rest in his palms. -
photo of a signboard displayed at a borders store in Selangor, Malaysia. photography by ssj, 2019
‘nice to see, nice to hold,
once broken, considered sold.’— anonymously printed on a signboard at a borders store
spells to sell
modern magic spells,
flasks of fortune to dispense
ancient human greedstir up the cauldron,
lift the urns into the air,
there are no borderslonger than your smile,
wider than your appetite,
these spells are for sale.– © ssj 2019
signboard displayed at a borders store in Selangor, Malaysia – no filters. photography by ssj, 2019
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Image is a mashup of photos by Jaymantri @ pexels.com and Trinck @ pixabay.com. The imagery employs some amount of Gaussian blur combined with a zooming effect. Neither of the original photos is anywhere near 71st Sinaiyah.
splitting seconds
this is what a WTD moment
on 71st Sinaiyah at my 10:
10:00 AM looks like from
the driver’s seat:narrow asphalt lanes
no longer than a mile
going and coming empty
but for the single file of sad cars
illegally parked along the curbs
— but only illegal for stray
traffic cops to say —
withering dull or glossy
under the desert sun on
either side of 10:09:58 AM,
twin solid yellow lines solemnly mark
separation at the middle of the world
promising a robust paradise
at the foreseeable future bend,
when from the corner of an eye
a red ocher car whips up to life:
(more…)
- when the lustered sea embraces the sand, is it to claim or cede its flotsam? when my mind sails with the rolling wind, is it to cast or catch a sparkle?
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