I have been

I Have Been
and that by itself is enough to encapsulate
the spirit which flees at will through these veins
I Have Been
but I have not been
and that is enough to contemplate
I Have Been
but I have yet to find and unleash
the veritable Songbird’s Orchestra
which begs only for the most majestic of audiences
for a brilliant masterpiece can only to the
sweetest of ears be unveiled

I Have Been
Oh! How I wish I could describe
how I have been

I have been in majestic lands
I have been in lands of sorrow
sat silently in a darkened room
with the electricity gone and only a crude
lantern in sight
the glorious Himalayas
stretched to the eye’s delight
I begged and I whined
and they took me to Everest’s top
Top of the world, ironically with so little air
I felt alive, I felt alive!

No matter how grand the mountain top
every mountain is ultimately one and the same
for I walked the trails of the Rockies
and tasted water as water should be tasted
not drank, but drawn in to the mouth with
every enthusiasm as though the world were to
be no more a day from now
Lay at the edges of a hollowed out lake
in Jasper’s heart
and wondered when it became that promises
were so god awfully difficult to keep
With the mighty mountains as the backdrop
I connected with the ants which rustle
ruefully at one’s feet and finally understood
their plight as Solomon must have
But oh! The freedoms of insignificance
were the world to forget me, forget us all
so we may sing and dance as if no one were
watching except for our own delighted inner child

I Have Been
through the Seven Seas
and attempted even to cross the
Persian Gulf but I have not Moses’ staff
and even had I his staff
the wise sailor understands one day that
the most treacherous of straits may be crossed
and it is the Captain’s duty to do so
but not every harbour will take his ship so willingly

Searched for her lost plane in the midst of the Pacific
to no avail
for some mysteries want not to be solved
Took refuge in Papua New Guinea
simply because I liked the game
and while on that note, then decided to journey
to Timbuktu
for I liked the name too
then went up the wazoo
to Kalamazoo
took off from New York
and sailed to its roots in Holland
danced a jig in clogs with the people of Friesland
as I waded my weary feet in the Wadden Sea
The tram took me through Wagening
and somehow in Andalusia was I lost

The burning ships of that legendary invasion
at Spain’s southern beaches were still on fire
but I had the Mediterranean to quell its anger

For 40 days we took the ships of the desert
and wandered in vain through the Sahara
walked through Libya searching for a long lost friend
but were I to find him, his soul would be lost
doubled back to Timbuktu
for I liked the name
In a flea shop met Alejaar
who had been in a tea shop in the Western Sahara
when Senegal overwhelmed France
Dark as night but a knight of benevolence
he lent me a time machine and asked only
that I share his tea
We sipped and we sipped
On the backs of camels as we lazily made
our way
Showed me the bones of a mighty king
which lay not a hundred feet from the edges
of a glorious oasis
and behind him lay an army of bones
which too dropped from exhaustion
from the trials of the desert
Kings, beggars, vagabonds, and the common man
all become one and the same
and the rich silk which adorns blows in the
wind as the body which it covered lays rotten
decimated for the lack of something so simple
as these three particles thrown together in an
indescribable mix

I bid him adieu
but he begged me
not to be reminded of the invaders

I Have Been
through time and back
at every crossroad of history
and would I surprise you if I were to inform
you that the people of past were no more noble
than you or I?
It is simply that they lived in a grander sense
every moment counted and every sensation
recounted
They tasted the fresh breeze every morning
and their hands touched the soil
and reminded they were that they would return
to that very same soil

I was at the Last Supper
and I must say, the food was delicious
there was a fellow whose name slips from my grasp
but a kind fellow was he
a lot of people began to follow him if I recall correctly
and men years afterward wrote books upon books
claiming that he said this and that
but I cannot verify any of that because the wine was
utterly unforgettable

I was the one in red
in whose hands rested
the cup of hemlock
and I could not watch
as the corruptor of youth
was to be no more

At the edges of a gentle forest
I wrote, oh how I used to write!
if only you could see how I used to write
And I will find them again for you one day
And I wrote and I wrote
Across the straits lay Constantinople
watched in amusement as they came and liberated

I was taking photographs in
the Fuhrer’s bunker
and I could not understand what the commotion was about
Bombs dropping everywhere as they have been
through history’s plight
I watched them all rot away
destined to death by birth
and then destined to
unleash death in a foolish
attempt for rebirth

The gulags were not kind to me
nor were the 70s for that matter
which is why I stood by at the door
and watched on as Stalin moaned in
pain and ultimately was no more
Which is why I danced the prisyadka
to the tune of “Ra Ra Rasputin..”
with a beautiful thing of golden curls
and bright blue orbs which reminded
me of my sailing days
the wall came down and we rejoiced
We rejoiced that night with the stars
desperately seeking our attention

I went along with Marco Polo
and later with Alexander the Great
I destroyed an entire land and entire civilizations
went with Columbus to the New Land
but it was just a curiosity for me now since I had
Been there many years ago with a Chinese captain
Whom I became good friends with
on a deck the size of a football field
the Natives mistook me as one of their own
and in a few gruesome moments
lay a heap of tragedy at my feet
as my breath panted back and forth
Everest’s top is nearby after all thought I

I survived Colonel Custard’s Last Stand
and sat alongside Sitting Bull

Dutch traders took me all around the world
as they pretended to listen in amazement
to my tales of the future
Manifest Destiny grew in their wombs
as well and they could not understand
my predictions of the future
With Alejaar’s tea in mind I asked to be taken to Java
sat on a tea plantation and waited

I have sailed, off into the horizon
I have been to the wild west, the abandoned north,
the colourful south, the mystical orient
many nights my shadow has been the only friend of mine
and on some, impurity in all its wretched forms
peeked its head above
the waves which splash against the caverns
on the inside of my torn heart
as i hear the ocean's rhythmic drumming
against a creaky ship
found and patched up on a warm
March morn
as I strolled beyond the boundaries
which I never knew existed

I have been through time and back
scoured the ends of the globe
but nothing has silenced me yet
a poet never becomes a true poet
until his words fail him one day
how can you then say that you have lived
if silence has never gripped you in its magical force?

I am still lost in time somewhere
searching for that moment of glorious silence

and when I am home,
after untold number of voyages which
have left a shipwreck on these abandoned shores
then truly, will I have lived
for my breath will be taken away in a way
that the world’s roof could not
So forgive this poet’s silence
on that fateful day
I will leave my words to the songbirds
to speak on my behalf
which take flight
from the vast hollows of my heart
at your very sight
and on that fateful day
I promise I shall delight you
with a song fit to be sung only
by a Songbird’s Orchestra
and its masterpiece enjoyed
only by the sweetest of ears

--courtesy of Muntaka.blogspot.com