Brothers why be like a moon on the wane
Ever beating the bolted door in vain
Hence why not unite again to stand ‘gain
Prideful of your Lebanese cultured vein
Be brave to bear the burden of your fate
And wise to quell the imposed storm of hate
Then teach those gate-crashers to understand
The meaning of our brotherhood and land
The meaning of free birth and liberty
The rights of man and his integrity
Beat your sight to the battle field speeding
Where your envied glory’s wounded bleeding
Bind the wounds with straps of courage and be
The strong echo heard of your victory.
11/1986
Drugged by the beauty of the plain
East by the forested hills pent
West by the ocean restrained
And a shepherd tending to his sheep
A breed of Merinos by Napoleon let out of Spain
I prayed him his lyre to wake
Tuning was heard and playing listened
The fields of maize I saw their stalks sway
Cupping leaves around the ears shaking notes of
ecstasy
Blasted from the quarry of the wind bewitching beats
Since the wind had been the breath of the world
Bearing the hidden secrets of harmony.
Clever, like Orpheus, still tapping the chords
The dreaming ocean upheaved
Steeds lashed by the rhythm frenzied
Beating hooves sweeping the shore
Ebbing billowing grouping racing again
Spray snorting from their nostrils blown
Rising spit-curls merging shaping clouds
Drifting islands of melody melting away.
And the blooming sun in water fading
With echoes reverberating from the hills
A reverie of music lost on the main.
And still I look at the lowing herd and the shepherd
Drugged entranced oblivious of time
To recover, I must wait.