Nothingness
Even if you were a bull, do not gore the air, it will
strike you down
Even if you were a pen, do not stab the air, it will
erase you
Even if you were a petty thinker leading a pack of
fools,
Do not train them to butt the void, for they will end
up goring you
The hammer is the mother of the nail,
and that is how she raises him with blows to the head
The street is the silent tongue of distance
The book is the pillow of an unknown prophet
And you, if you were to look deeply,
both your sides are an illusion,
and the difference between front and back is a lie
There is nothing there to gore in the first place
Nothing,
Nothing, Save for the fact that you move, absurdly,
from one void to another
Creation
Driven by fate or given a choice, it no longer matters
In both cases,
I stole the egg and fed it to my poor shadow
I contemplated the beauty of many women’s bodies
I know that love is a game of chess,
Evil and good are two horses, racing forever
In my hand are the keys to my prison,
and my prison is in the paper,
and in the paper is the word,
and in the word is the beginning of every new
creation.
The Pendulum
Leave it, and do not finish the
line…
The phrase: "Man and woman are twins, and love
is..."
The sentence: "The knife is always right, except
when..."
The description: "War is the true root of the
festival concept, and..."
Do not finish the line, Lest you become an accomplice
in the crime,
Lest the children see you as a clown of hollow
meanings,
And the mothers see you as a slip of a mute man’s
tongue
Enough, Stop, and walk away
The wall clock will smile at you,
And with its
long, dancing pendulum,
It will wave you goodbye… forever.
Author’s Bionote:
*Adel Khozam is a poet from Dubai, UAE, and a
member of the generation of modernists who pioneered the Arabic prose poem in
the 1980s. He has published more than 20 books spanning poetry, philosophy,
fiction, and literary studies, and his works have been translated into several
languages. In 2020, he launched the “World Poetry Tree” project, an anthology
featuring 406 poets from around the globe, published as part of Expo Dubai’s
cultural program. He has received prestigious international honors, including
Italy’s Tulliola Poetry Award (2020) and the Medal for Best International Poet
from China (2021). In the Arab world, Adonis described his book The “Naked
Spring” (2019) as the most significant poetic work in the first quarter of the
21st century. In 2024, he was awarded the Gold Medal from the World Writers
Organization for his book ‘The Philosopher’s Mail”. His most recent project, “Manseerah”,
is a cosmic poetic epic created in collaboration with 86 poets from around the
world, for which he received the Golden Medal from Great Poetry Movement in
China.