Alhassan

“The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”
― Plato

“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.”
― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

“تُنسى كأنك لم تكن

تنسى كمصرع طائر

ككنيسة مهجورة تنسى

كحب عابر

وكوردة في الريح

وكوردة في الثلج

تنسى

انا للطريق

هناك من سبقت خطاه خطاي

من املى رؤاه على رؤاي

هناك من نثر الكلام على سجيته

ليعبر في الحكاية

او يضيء لمن سيأتي بعده

أثرا غنائيا وجرسا

تُنسى كأنك لم تكن

شخصا ولا نصا..وتنسى

امشي على هدي البصيرة

ربما أعطي الحكاية سيرة شخصية

فالمفردات تقودني وأقودها

انا شكلها

وهي التجلي الحر

لكن قيل ما سأقول

يسبقني غد ماض

انا ملك الصدى لا عرش لي الا الهوامش

فالطريق هو الطريقة

ربما نسي الأوائل وصف شيء ما

لاوقظ فيه عاطفة وحسا

تنسى كأنك لم تكن خبرا ولا أثرا وتنسى

انا للطريق

هناك من تمشي خطاه على خطاي

ومن سيسبقني الى رؤياي

من سيقول شعرا في مديح حدائق المنفى امام البيت

حرا من غدي المقصوم

من غيبي ودنياي

حرا من عبادة الأمس

من فردوسي الأرضي

حرا من كناياتي ومن لغتي

فأشهد أنني حر وحي حين..أُنسى”
― محمود درويش

“I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, 'Where's the self-help section?' She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.”
― George Carlin