Poetry: Ashraf AboArafe
The boughs awaken, and their blossoms rise,
Shedding a fragrance toward the vaulted blue;
Their gentle breath ascends to paradise,
A whispered hymn the wandering winds pursue.
And every creature, stirred by heaven’s air,
Feels in its heart a tremor, soft and mild;
For love, through petals blooming everywhere,
Turns earth to Eden, tender and beguiled.
The lover gathers flowers for his dear,
And sets their sweetness in her waiting hands;
While memory, drifting on the atmosphere,
Holds love like light that over time expands.
But when farewell descends with quiet tread,
And blossom yields to parting’s solemn call,
The branch and bud, though living once as one,
Stand trembling at the shadow of the fall.
Then “Departure” asks: “Does love decay afar?
Do roots forget the blossoms once they bore?”
But “Nectar” whispers: “Love no severance knows—
Its bond resounds beyond the mortal shore.”
Verses of Reflection and Counsel
O humankind, behold the world He wrought—
For every leaf declares the Sculptor’s name;
Each flower, by unseen benediction taught,
Lifts silent hymns upon its fragile frame.
They soothe our wounds with perfumes soft and pure,
Yet feel the sorrow of the plucking hand;
For beauty we receive, their pains endure,
Their quiet cries no mortal understands.
How oft my heart is pierced when mint I take
To grace my tea with fragrance cool and light;
I pause—ashamed—to see the severed stem,
A child torn gently from its mother’s sight.
And whisper: “Lord, forgive this heedless soul
Whose fleeting pleasure costs a life so small;
If blossoms weep, what burden must they bear
When from their tender kin they chance to fall?”
O self—have mercy! Do not blindly take
What sighs beneath your fingers, torn apart;
For every petal broken for your joy
Leaves sorrow folded in a mother’s heart.
Thus “Departure” rises as a fleeting breath,
And “Nectar” keeps the flame of love alive;
In every fruit a testament is kept—
The grape, the date, the pomegranate thrive.
Though bodies fade, yet spirits bloom anew,
For every ending bears a brighter birth;
Between this world and that beyond the dew
A pause unites the heavens with the earth.
And love remains, unshadowed by decline,
Where souls are joined by Him who rules the day;
The bonds we fashion here persist divine—
No dusk can steal eternal light away.
O Lord, bestow upon our hearts a sight
That reads Thy wisdom in created things;
Teach us to walk in gentleness and light,
And guard the life that every green shoot brings.
We are but guests upon this wandering sphere,
Not slaves to whims that dim the inward eye;
Thy mercy molds our spirits year by year,
And lifts our hopes like incense to the sky.
Grant us the grace to tend each fragile stem
That murmurs praise beneath the moonlit shade;
For in its beauty lies a sign of Thee—
A silent scripture by Thy finger laid.
Make us a mercy to the world we tread,
Not hearts deceived by fleeting dust or day;
And guide the soul that faltered in its course
Back to Thy light—its everlasting way.
