Death, old age aside, Nothing is more humbling than a book or a woman. A beautiful woman. With a multicultural aesthetic perspective and a poetic voice that is simultaneously autobiographical and concrete, emotional and surrealistic, universal and humanist, Lebanese-American poet Mansour Ajami introduces his first collection of lyrical expression in Words in the Memory of the Night. This diverse compilation of more than eighty poems demonstrates diversity and difference of theme, employment of metaphor, idiom, and intellectual and emotional interplay, while exploring philosophical issues as time, space, memory, dreams, youth, old age, love, solitude, and on occasion, such whimsical topics as navels. While writing about everyday experiences like waiting for his children to come home, Ajami presents his poetry with a simple and straightforward style that is easily relatable to others in all stages of life. In Words in the Memory of the Night, a new poet emerges and shares his culture along with his heart in a memorable collection of modern poetry.

Words in the Memory of the Night

Selected PoemsBy Mansour Ajami

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2010 Mansour Ajami
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4502-3736-9

Chapter One

Improvisations on a Stringed Instrument A strum A stroke An oblong sound the hazy length of a healthy yawn Is it a waterfall or your hungry fingers drawing circles of youth and exhaustion? I goad my ears to swaddle a note streak a sigh My eyes become ears I hunt for the shadow the lazy dimension of a dolorous note a ruddy note But your jagged dreams Your risky moods spin me in a forest of notes a field of tunes I pity the string your hunches and my ears A Curious Sunset I strut about in time on a notion redolent of flesh and slumber She vaunts herself as if she were a pool of shells and, sobbing, I could, if I wish, empty my voice into the somnolent senses of the sated I could expel my eyes and my shadow I could ship my nerves and delight to a curious sunset Should I be asked about a land that falls asleep if I laugh and shrivels if I dandle my whims? My memory is awake Shall I feed the words? An Old Dictionary My teacher had given (pardon, lent) me a dictionary an irrelevant dictionary I retired it but remembered my teacher Years lapsed Years of relevant books time poetry absence presence laughter fatigue and questions My teacher remembered the dictionary I unfurled its words and drove them to my teacher Contempt is now born- also shunning and protest What a pity! I cannot hate I can only blather and backbite My teacher has a memory How insolent can he be! No memory resides outside the relevance of words My teacher never enjoyed the warmth and the memory of words Teachers need no memory They live outside the words Parting with a Book Parting with a book I did not write but that I read is a past distant severed my memory is sad to retain Parting with a book that I wrote but did not read is a past so distant yet present my memory is delighted to discard Books just hang between present and past Memory is the only future Words in the Memory of the Night Before the night grays it becomes poetry It fashions itself again It assumes the form of words- a yawning sentence an image-adorning sopor a round thought an oblong thought A thought the size of the form that knows no pain There is no comma between the words Night loses its solitude its desolation when it becomes poetry Words abound in the memory of the night My friends abound I embrace all the images and thoughts before the night grays Sumi and Infinity To my son, Nassim Sumi said, "I got a high score today- 710, 200, millions, infinity Infinity, Dad!" "You mean infinity like the geese outside our window?" "Yes, infinity like our window." (Infinity with a center or a hole or no holes at all like a wall with a door) "Like music, Dad. Like that record, `Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.'" (Like the threshing sound of cicadas in our elm and oak trees) "Do you remember what I said to Mom when we were in the tunnel?-`It's as long as a bowl of yucky cereal ...'" Oh, what a memory! My son's memory is no burden Nor is mine any longer It's a ride through time A hike into infinity Memory infinity and time "I shielded myself from time with the shadow of its wings So my eyes see time but time sees me not If the days were asked about me They would not know my name and about my abode They would not know where I am" Aggressive Is My Memory Tonight, my memory wants to stay awake with me Aggressive is my memory but not unique Tireless is my memory It knows no pain yet I don't envy myself My memory is mean insolent It is my mouth My memory is all space all time I shun the past- my memory is there The present worries me- my memory is here The future is all memory I am lazy cowardly but I want all time all space My memory knows no sleep Is my memory endless night endless day? My memory never complains It knows no pain I do not want memory to be my voice my food my dream my pleasure Yes, my memory needs space It forgets I forgive my memory Would that I could forget! Memory I admire you but I am not fond of you You and My Memory You are close closer to me than my memory than my passion for my memory You are the mellifluous voice of my memory that never ceases to sing or ring If On a Traveling Dream If on a traveling dream a tear gasps or gushes down It is because you are so beautiful And I am not so young If on myriad dreams a heart yearns pines mixes present and future belies all differences A smile A word A graceful curve saves the heart If on a reveling night a dream is ordered a dream is fetched The night becomes full The day dull And you remain so beautiful And I am not so young Redolent Dreams I steadied myself in myself mastered my mind freed my feelings dismissed all daring indolence and arrogance But for a few redolent dreams and ardent aching for change I embraced my fears and wrapped them around survival I want to prolong life the whims absurdities and realities of life I will never want to die Every end is needed save the end of life the end of desire the end of fear fun and flight of fancy I am not selfish I just love life food women and poetry Young Dreams Now that I have time to dream I will dream for you and for myself I will fulfill your dreams My...