Obeyed Orders

They say “simmer down,”
“Slow down,” “take it easy”
Slowing down,
A mire
Sucking     slowly,
Shifting existence?

For I will forever be     a   wanderer,
    A seeker,
Questing,
           Questioning,
Never satiated
        Never satisfied,
An        unreachable        reachable.

Diving head first
Every encounter fulfilling,
Every experience savored,
Mind buzzing with dreams,
Soul thirsting for the stars of the unknown.

Arms spread out wide,
Wings of wonderment whirling,
Flying the coop of closure.

The days
The dizzying dive
Stops,
Is the day
I die. . . .

Take a breath

Pull it in and let it out
as you contemplate the innermost soul

Take a breath
and consider the Everlasting Unity

And dance in a daze of discovery
as the Creator’s essence gives you breath

And breathe, breathe, breathe. . . .

The Shielded

To live in seclusion seems a luxury
in a society that has no limits on privacy
in a society of imposed, expected directives by all
in a walled, segmented, corrugated community
of affable masks donned night and day.

As even the growing generation
dons on armor, holds up shields of enforced obedience
paying the price on a bounty of approval
as acceptance supersedes logic,
supersedes optimism
supersedes the very essence of individuality
and the robes of truth are shredded over and over
with sharpened daggers of commanded, approved actions

With each passing page in the album of life
curtains thicken till dreaded darkness
invades the very core of existence
and faceless seamless hordes
rampage in stilted, stifled silence

Will the rising generation
face and welcome an open doorway
jump over the imaginary and existing cemented walls
break the prison of molded existence?
and enter an arena of
                  possible possibilities?

His Will sets the current flowing
rocks, corals leaves
revolve in circles of freedom

Yet man pulls out
torn, tattered lips pull back, back arched
shaking, shuddering,

And the rising current
turns into sorrowed struggles
chained, blocked passage

When the spirit of ridha, of acceptance ascends
the current flows
        in a soliloquy of mutual peace . . .

*Ridha is acceptance

The Written

Compromise, a word or concept
each letter a hammer,
pushing down hard
a shock to the system
the resistance builds up
yet we accede
as the tides of trials wash up
the shore of living, breathing upheavals
and the glimmer of hope
of resolution
of peace
shifts in ever-widening realms

As  we tread the boards of
the written and emerging path.  

Nimah Nawwab, from Mecca, Saudi Arabia, is a poet, writer, and photographer, an international lecturer and a nominated Young Global Leader, whose writing and work as a social activist and spans issues on women, empowerment of youth, spirituality, diversity, change, and mutual respect for genders and races. Her best-selling book The Unfurling (Selwa Press, 2004) was the first book by a Saudi poet to be published in the United States. Her work has been featured in numerous international media outlets, including BBC World News, Channel News Asia, Newsweek International, and others. Her poems are included in several anthologies, including Gathering the Tide: An Anthology of Contemporary Arabian Gulf Poetry, forthcoming from Garnet/Ithaca in 2011.