I Love Fonts Poem by Ahmad Shiddiqi

I love fonts
I love calligraphy too
Each letter has its own soul
I couldn't stop writing
The word sushi
A delicious word to taste

I love painting
I love to capture a moment
The feeling, the love
I got very close
To the reality
Of what I see every day, every step

I love Bohemian life
I used to go two days
At a time without eating
Not one or twice
But a quite few times

I guess I love light
The love of light
The light is exotic
The light is amazing
It is the huge contrast
Between shade and brightness
Exciting just in itself

I always loved animals
I was lucky enough
To be born near forest
Very simple I see something
And I usually have to be
In love with what I see

I love music very much
Specially Classical Music
Bartok was as energetic as
Chopin and Schumann
But Ravel had reflected
The sheer harmony in orchestra
Just like Bach on organ and harpsichord

I have a mere philosophy
Be humble
Be honest
Forgive and give
The joy is in loving others equally

I turned around and said
If I am famous
People will listen to me
If I am famous enough
People will spend time
Looking at what I'm doing

I tell you secretly
There were two girls
I should have married
One was a lovely Korean girl called Kim Sun-Kyung
The other was an Irish, an administration staff

I think of being an artist
An artist is a good artist
Whose standard is very high
When I work
If I can't do something
That is equally as good as
The great masters who I admire
It's not a good work
I always say
T.S. Eliot was a man
Robert Creeley was a man
Carl Sandburg was a man
And as men
We are capable of doing
What they were capable of doing
First be a man
Then be an artist
I think you have to believe it
You must excel, excel, excel
And never give up
Take William Carlos Williams for instance
He was always experimenting
Always going, searching
But when he did hit it
He was brilliant

I feel about the world we live in today
The world has become so materialistic
Mobile phone, television and computer are new revelations
Who had never touched and watched them
But nature has always been beautiful
There is nothing more exciting for me
Than when natural colors keep changing
When I wake up and look out
What I see is beauty