Selected Lines

Poems
Each of these lines appeared in a poem of mine.

 Feminism preceded the human race in the form of wildflowers.


 The page was starving white.


 Do flowers know when they are dying? 


 Dawn may be a few generations away. 


 Beauty is the electrical field that gives poetry its magnetic force.


 I think of a poem as an exhibitionist muse flashing her ankle.


 Decisive like a daybreak, sober like a Monday.


 An eagle can only see forward. 


 She feels like a wrecked ship, exhausted from long voyages, 
salted baths, and the weight of wrinkled luggage of young sailors.



              © 2025 Mohamed Chaouchi. All rights reserved.

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Fayrouz

Poems
“The legendary Lebanese singer and greatest living Arab diva” BBC, 2008
A river wide and deep,
befriending fields and night stars, 
trees and open skies.
Outshining poetry and melodies, 

its grace touches snow 
and cedars alike. It reshapes 
meaning and leads to a safer space.
A moon we can look up to

despite our flaws and burdens.
Like a mirror, she invites us 
to admire ourselves. A lifetime 
dedicated to lifting art above 

the mountains of Lebanon. 
The voice of Arab nations,
seeking a pure beauty
despite civil wars, continuous losses.

Fayrouz stood, sang, resisted, 
and helped us grow and bloom.
Her voice-- sacred, extraordinary– 
is a daybreak, a beginning.

A confirmation that transformation 
is possible, that hope has hope.
Her singing renders words complete, 
and lends language new dimensions.

Her songs let poets, artists, writers, 
and anyone sipping coffee 
on rooftops overlooking other rooftops 
affirm that life has merits, 

that it fully deserves embracing.
Through her gifts we recover joy, 
understand freedom without borders, 
beyond politics, culture, the ordinary.

We return to Fayrouz for joy and inspiration, 
we yearn her songs as we yearn for home 
after a long absence, remembering
that Fayrouz stood tall, to liberate us all.


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On Alert

Poems 


 I like to be on alert, 
 all my alarms deployed, extended
 to the point of being spent.

 Like the day I carried 
 a 2,000 year old vase 
 inside a museum where I worked.
 
 Or the day I summoned 
 the courage to hold 
 your hand on that evening stroll.

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The Needles in the Haystack

Poems 


 Great poems deliver 
 a few permanent sentences.

 Those that sharpen 
 your mind, 

 soften your stands,
 shake your confidence,

 double your realm of doubts,
 and serve you a blow, 

 throwing you backwards, 
 from their intensity.
 
 The virtue of scarring your psyche 
 with the spell of words.

 Some call it magic. 
 Others genius.

 I think of it as an exhibitionist muse 
 flashing her ankle.
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Preface of Wildflowers

Poems

Today, I published my fifth book of poetry. It is a great coincidence that today would have been the 87 Birthday of Sylvia Plath.

Below is the preface of Wildflowers:

Five years ago, I embarked on a journey and a personal commitment to self-publish one book of poetry per year for ten consecutive years. This year marks the mid-point. Over time, I have learned a great deal about the art. I like to think that I have evolved and that my writing has strengthened along the way. My belief that writing poems is a serious business has only deepened.

There is so much that goes into a poem besides the initial spark that inspires the birth of something beautiful in the poet’s head. The initiation indicates a start while its allure, fascination, and breakthrough are encouraging signs to pursue it. The finish line is many drafts away. Like a traveler who endures a long journey before arriving home. Even when at home, another journey starts.

A poem is more like a wedding. The bride has to choose her groom following her heart and be sure about her love for him. Then she spends long days and nights in meticulous planning. At the center of the wedding, there is the newlywed couple celebrating their love, and starting a new beginning. There is great deal of food, drink, and music. Many friends are in attendance including bridesmaids, best men, and guests of honor. All are in their best attire and contribute even so subtly to commemorating this happy occasion. There are the hopeful singles who are looking for love. There is the tipsy uncle who will not follow the carefully rehearsed script from the night before. If we are lucky the best man may spill some beans in his rambling speech after consuming a few drinks. Let’s not forget the mother, her heroic efforts to make this day perfect. I would like to bring your attention especially to the mother as she sheds a few tears when the couple cuts the cake. I like how the mother is never sure that the groom is up to the task of taking good care of her baby girl. I feel the same way about the poet in me.

I look forward to embracing the upcoming five years, hopeful that they may bring gifts bearing promises. Until then, I leave you with these poems of mine. Please be gentle as you converse with them.

Thank you!

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Bending Line

Poems 
 



 I denounce the factory owner for grabbing the land,
 underpaying for the raw material, and subjecting
 his employees to longer hours and mediocre conditions. 

 From the third and upper floor of the building adjacent 
 to the factory, he glances briefly at headlines of today's paper. 
 Beneath him, a mob of mid-management awaits new instructions. 

 Ownership has been in the family. Only they can buy and sell. 
 Eager to show utter disregard for anyone else and other ways. 
 He sips his coffee, curses the times, and mocks the news.

 He gives orders, puffs his pipe, and asks about the deliveries. 
 Every day I rise early, put on my best attire, stand in line 
 at the docks across the fields from his balcony, and I beg for a job.
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Wounded Cheeks

Oasis of Doubts, Poems 


 She is among poets a Mozart. 
        Always playful, forever joyful. 
        Beauty not only a virtue, 
               but an end unto itself. 

 Her sensibilities as delicate 
                   as a debutante’s cheeks.
        Her prose shimmers 
                   with overflowing ambitions.

 Her pride dominates the stage,
        like an aura of grace 
        struggling to hide its confidence.
        Begging the world to take a seat, 

                   not to miss the beginnings, 
                          discover stunning revelations. 
 So contagious are her pleas, 
        they require us to register 

                   her presence, as they humble her audience. 
 Like the serenity of light, 
        early morning,
                   as it lands on trees and their leaves,

 Her metaphors standing out 
        the way beautiful domes adorn 
                   long stained-glass walls 
                            of medieval churches.
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Should I Engage?

Oasis of Doubts, Poems

Trapped in thoughts like punctuations between sentences.
Yet certain my contributions will clear the air,

invite intriguing conversations with my fellow travelers
on this train ride, during my visit to Morocco, my first home.

They must have guessed I now live abroad,
am an outsider— my Gap shirt is too white.

As if doubly bleached,
plus it stands out in contrast to the colors around.

They will shortly conclude
I reside in an English speaking country,

for I will let escape the inevitable ok, the affirmative yeah,
and the convenient wow as I nod in agreement.

My Mother’s tongue buried deep somewhere.
Despite my careful selection of words,

I struggle to finish a thought.
Rusty as I am, I need warming up.

Outmatched and out of practice;
no matter my precautions, traces of rough

edges float in my speech, a betrayal.
I will come across as calculating, may be preaching.

They will inevitably ask: where are you visiting from?
America— immediately prompting eyebrows to rise.

A vacationer, a gringo. Will they dismiss my ideas?
Or pretend to be impressed?

Not really, they genuinely smile, and flood me with questions.Facebooktwittermail

Four by Four

Oasis of Doubts, Poems

A puppeteer feels vibration,
echoing from the puppet
as it reacts to the dictated directions.

Mentoring is no different.

*

Claims to being the source of light,
from self-inflated egos,
are felt hardest on other self-inflated egos;

until darkness suffocates all.

*

When a dictator makes light of his ugly self,
or self-deprecates, it does not make him less evil,
and certainly not human.

In suffering, normalization is off-limits.

*

Sadness has enormous rings
that are forever expanding,
easily shared among the miserable.

Pain is contagious.Facebooktwittermail