Yahia Lababidi

Hope

Every day, regardless
of the night’s previous
sulks or arguments,

morning climbs into bed
breathless as a child
eager to play.

…..

Liberation

and, once you’ve arrived at the perimeters
of personality
that knot of contradictions, idiosyncrasies
called character

through the hall of mirrors
that comfort and distort

the liberation of undifferentiation
awaits the well-ventilated soul.

……

Circumstances

The mind is full
of elephants and mice
scuffling in corridors

The air is dense
with stray spirits
swarming for soul

Heart like a spider’s web
misstep, and one is caught
carried away, helpless.

..

Colombia

Here, in Medellin, what night lights –
like a resplendent necklace, glittering
against the bare throat of the mountains

Softly, coming in and out of focus
as though the mountains were breathing
between sharing a tender memory
of the city, with the valley and themselves.

…

The poet

In the park, this morning, a boy
bespectacled, gangly, impish grin
idly chasing a squirrel guarding an acorn –
both proceed in crouches and pounces
Trailing behind them, a man
bespectacled, bearded, bemused
Armed with tell-tale pen and notebook
the poet eavesdrops on youth and life.

…
Yahia Lababidi (born 1973) is an aphorist and Pushcart-nominated poet with work appearing in such publications as World Literature Today, Cimarron Review, AGNI, Hotel Amerika, Rain Taxi and Philosophy Now. His first book, Signposts to Elsewhere (Jane Street Press) was selected as a Book of the Year, 2008, by The Independent (UK). Meantime, his latest works are, “Trial by Ink: From Nietzsche to Belly Dancing” a collection of literary and cultural essays, as well as “Fever Dreams” a poetry collection from Crisis Chronicles Press. To date, Lababidi’s writing has been translated into Arabic, Slovak, Italian, Dutch, Swedish and Turkish.
Otherwise, his work appears in several anthologies, including: Geary’s Guide to the World’s Great Aphorists as well as the best-selling US college textbook, Literature: an Introduction to Reading and Writing (10th edition). Lababidi was chosen as a Juror for the 2012 Neustadt Prize (a biannual award widely considered the most prestigious international literary prize after the Nobel Prize in Literature).