Poem 041: A Different Dream Poem by Samer Madbak

And one day I discovered me
Acquitted of reality
Far off, entranced within a dream
Chimeras of felicity
A lofty love, a holy beam,
A sharper truth, oh Deity!

In foreign worlds I was, a flare,
Meandering through shaded air
My crystal soul diffused the night
Reverberations everywhere:
“What darkness can compare with light
Sullied with pain and mortal care? ”

Lighter than breeze I made my way
Ebon espoused to fading grey
In white I was an odditye
Defiling perfection’s array
A query and a sweet reply:
The aether cradles not the clay? !

Then halted I afore a scene
A spider in a silver screen
I neared, he said in somber strain
Give ear, O mortal, to my keen:
Draw forth the quick’ning cup of pain
He dies who shuns the sip of spleen

He ended and revealed to me
A stream of dazzling clarity
Ablaze with sacred appetite
I drank with full alacrity
He simpered and passed out of sight
I sunk in insobriety!


Beirut
November 3rd 1988