FREE for Mohamed Ibn Al Ajami/ by Neeli Cherkovski

Al Ajami in prison in Qatar

   FREE
   for Mohamed Ibn Al Ajami
   “A robin red-breast in a cage,
   Puts all heaven in a rage.” Wm. Blake
   — Auguries of Innocence

   GO BLAME
   FREEDOM FOR
   FREEDOM, GO BLAME THE CEREBRAL
   CORTEX FOR THE ABILITY
   TO WAGE TALK, TO TAKE TALK,
   TO TACKLE THE FREE SPIRIT
   IN YOUR MAMMAL MIND, BLAST
   A HOLE IN MEMORY’S CORE TO
   TASTE THE FREEDOM OF
   ANCIENT ECHO-CHORDS CAUGHT
   IN CATASTROPHE
   YET BENT ON HOLDING YOU
   TO THE MIND YOU HOLD
   IN YOUR EYES

   unspeakable, yet vote you
   must, press the issue
   as you might slip a leaf
   into a book of poems
   to be found a century later,
   brittle, restive, a feast. . .
   listen to the crackling surfqcd

   it’s just another
   day in the human
   universe askimng
   for speech, indeed
   demanding we converse
   a dream or a tough
   reality so the mind
   glows in meaning
   and imagination, freedom
   to speak, to be
   your own ideology, your
   own president

   free speech should run
   your life as does
   the mortal ribbon
   tied to mantles
   of sunlight looming
   over shadows
   in doubt and
   deception, free
   talk, free mind, free
   art, free poems, free
   medicine, free thought,
   free love, f
   in the woods of
   self, free to awaken
   and feel as you
   wish, free to
   speak, free and
   dangerous in what
   you say, to carve a
   mantle of the new
   in the presence oif
   what is old, free to
   practice the art
   of calligraphy on
   fine paper or
   in a cheap spiral
   notebook, and

   free enough
   not to see
   your poem locked
   behind bars, this
   Oh! this handsome
   right we must
   claim because
   every right is
   due us in the meadow
   under a impetuous
   moon, yes all
   right, come down
   and be reborn
   in the shadow of
   the shrub and
   tree amused on
   your pulsating
   art, no fatwa
   again, free for
   freedom to
   hammer from
   stone and clay
   a song, to
   hold a mirror
   up to the unicorn
   who has a bearded
   smile and one
   horn, and a set
   of glass beads and
   a love for the moraine
   and the rock-strewn
   terrain above
   the tree line
   where freedom
   is a lot of loud
   talk by windy
   drummers
   GO BLAME
   FREEDOM
   for your crippling
   tongue, GO BLAME
   FREEDOM AHEAD
   OF YOURSELF before
   you kill the goat or
   expend your hand
   on the lamb’s throat

   blame an empty
   meadow twined
   to the forest-
   fortress, blast
   a boom in the
   tomb of the unknown
   poet who holds
   a crystal rose
   for the love light
   of words

   go free those
   palaces of
   noun and
   adjective as
   the storm clouds
   bleed and the
   children proceed
   to gather language

   free speech must
   ruin a bad and sultry
   night, yes, free
   words, a snip
   of a twig of an
   olive or a vine
   on which the
   rich wine gathers

   a honeybee
   for chanting, a
   wasp for chiming,
   the cat for
   peace and
   solitude, curled
   by freedom’s
   door, a dog
   running free
   on the hill, a land
   crammed with
   birds

   O burning turning
   fucking licking
   kissing sucking
   lucky murky
   madness in a single
   eye, on a community
   of salt, in wounds
   of betrayal, on a bed
   of ice

   go be free, let no one
   imprison your mind
   or your body