Malak Kalmoni. Chehab Thanks for introducing this intriguing new Hungarian poetic form, Malak. Clever use of assonance and consonance in the first three lines that mirrors the lengthening lines, (hon, honey, hopeful,) and then throughout, (lone, loving, tough, lonely.) Excellent contrast of “loving” and “lonely” in a if-you- have-to-make-a-choice scenario. By Linda Powers O’Dell
APEVA Love
Hon Honey Hopeful, lone Loving is tough Better than lonely.
My poetry book, Perfectly Flawed poetry for change, is available on all eplatforms including Amazon. It was on the finalist list for the Canadian Book Club Awards 2023.
Malak Kalmoni. Chehab “Silence is silently golden” is wonderful tmesis, Malak. This revision emphasizes how the benefits of silence are also silent. Congratulations on such a complex, profound poem. Ambition is a tricky thing. Without it how can we progress? But do we want to live hounded for a few moments of elevation? Should feelings of inferiority be our motivation for defying destiny? To fill the blackish emptiness, to escape masochistic scorching pursuits, requires more than polish. To sit alone is silence may be the ultimate solace. Powerful, impressive poem with awesome tempo and rhymes! By, Linda Powers O’Dell
Thank you for the honor and your hard work.
Fate Follows Slowly
Silence is silently golden and craves Quiet to fulfill its quiet role Where falling for the coal That burns your soul and paves
The way to hounding healing hell That elevates your status momentarily, There’s a scorching that’s heavenly For your masochistic tendencies that fell
From the mouth of a demeaning, Enraged inferiority demanding Solace with like crazed minded souls fleeing The impossible: Karma, fate, destiny crawling
At its slow pace right behind Your extravagant polish That hides an emptiness that’s blackish And finds comrades that comfort in kind.
My poetry book, Perfectly Flawed poetry for change, is available on all eplatforms including Amazon. It was on the finalist list for the Canadian Book Club Awards 2023.
Malak Kalmoni. Chehab “Silence is silently golden” is wonderful tmesis, Malak. This revision emphasizes how the benefits of silence are also silent. Congratulations on such a complex, profound poem. Ambition is a tricky thing. Without it how can we progress? But do we want to live hounded for a few moments of elevation? Should feelings of inferiority be our motivation for defying destiny? To fill the blackish emptiness, to escape masochistic scorching pursuits, requires more than polish. To sit alone is silence may be the ultimate solace. Powerful, impressive poem with awesome tempo and rhymes! By, Linda Powers O’Dell
Thank you for the honor and your hard work.
Fate Follows Slowly
Silence is silently golden and craves Quiet to fulfill its quiet role Where falling for the coal That burns your soul and paves
The way to hounding healing hell That elevates your status momentarily, There’s a scorching that’s heavenly For your masochistic tendencies that fell
From the mouth of a demeaning, Enraged inferiority demanding Solace with like crazed minded souls fleeing The impossible: Karma, fate, destiny crawling
At its slow pace right behind Your extravagant polish That hides an emptiness that’s blackish And finds comrades that comfort in kind.
My poetry book, Perfectly Flawed poetry for change, is available on all eplatforms including Amazon. It was on the finalist list for the Canadian Book Club Awards 2023.
Malak Kalmoni. Chehab A powerful antiwar protest poem, Malak! The injustice, the B.S, the crimes of petty wars are truly horrifying; you make us feel them to our core. You’ve created an intriguing version of the Pythagorean Triple, Malak. This is how poetry evolves, through innovation on existing forms. By Linda Powers O’Dell
Replaced
Petty wars Kill victims, Genders, trill
Their song of death Injustice wraps Noose, overkill
Around kin who’s fam Stuggles covered, and Erased to hide crimes
Under the B.S. they trill, Singing a song, oppress Natives replaced: killers …
My poetry book, Perfectly Flawed poetry for change, is available on all eplatforms including Amazon. It was on the finalist list for the Canadian Book Club Awards 2023.
Malak Kalmoni. Chehab Wow, Malak, a double acrostic, these are not easy and yours is fantastic! Not precisely an acrostic as the ending words don’t always begin with the beginning letter of the line, but I find this to be an exciting innovation. Your vocabulary and images are so stirring, quite emotionally moving! Throughout, you are calling poignantly for peace, for a symphony of souls united. If only all would renounce violence, the “constant and cacophony of death!” Superb poem!! By Linda Powers O’Dell
Double Acrostic WAR’S VICTORIES
Wallowing in War’s endless cycle of laW Amplifyies the voices of victors who stAnd Reviewing their accomplishments of destRuction Steal the visuals of those combating for Survival
Villains of evil violence stand as their Vision Issues a constant cacophony of death Instead of Carefully striving towards a lasting peaCe Tasting its victory as murder is sTopped Outlasting the carnage into a symphOny of Rousing screams, strikes, congRegations Intermixing races, religions, absolute harmonIes Eternally standing together pledging symEtry, Symphony around the victories of peaceS
My poetry book, Perfectly Flawed poetry for change, is available on all eplatforms including Amazon. It was on the finalist list for the Canadian Book Club Awards 2023.
Malak Kalmoni. Chehab Fantastic use of images of fire, flames, explosions, and burning, Malak! Your thematic repetitions and sharp images make us face directly the tragedies of war, wars fought stupidly for supremacy. By using rhyming couplets, you create a montage of horrors and impending disasters. Congratulations on this powerful protest poem so rich with thrilling images!! By, Linda Powers O’Dell
Thank you for the honor and your hard work.
Fire, Fire
Fire, fire, burning so bright, So many fires needing to be put out!
Fires of explosions of wars, Death and dying vying for supremacies,
Amputees trying to outrun the burning Fires of bombs, exploding cars, gas hissing
And licking up the flames in flight To overwhelm everything it touches and brought
New life to the dancing flaming fields Where farms used to be full of buds.
Fire, fire, burning bright into the night, A flag of might, as it poors over a fight
To live in love within a world burning In chaos of its making, sizzling
Like the charcoal grilled bird, Linked in pain of being burned.
Fire, Fire, burning me inward As loss and grief drowns me when I had
A burning fire for the future To look forward to, that’s now a jailer
Of captured dreams, up in flames As depressing fire rages in a gamut of times
My poetry book, Perfectly Flawed poetry for change, is available on all eplatforms including Amazon. It was on the finalist list for the Canadian Book Club Awards 2023.
Malak Kalmoni. Chehab Excellent reveille by a poem, Malak; it’s high time that we wake up to the suffering and inequality of this world. By repeating your refrain after every line in the first stanza, you create a powerful sense of urgency; you emphasize each travesty in need of redress. In your third stanza you address our consciences directly as you commend being humane empathetic and compassionate. I note your focus on “colonial consumerism,” no argument here, although almost all governments are inclined to exploit the resources owned by others. Justice and equality should indeed be our twin North stars. Superb poem, bravo!! By Linda Powers O’Dell
Thank you for the honor and your hard work
Why Not ‘Wake Up’?
‘Wake Up’, The world Is in chaos, ‘Wake Up’ The colonizer is a killer, ‘Wake Up’ The losses keep adding up, ‘Wake Up’ The deafening silence is complicit, ‘Wake Up’ You’re made to feel helpless ‘Wake Up’ Your job is to be aware ‘Wake Up’ Your job is to speak out ‘Wake Up’ Your job is to make others aware
‘Wake Up’ ‘Wake Up’ ‘Wake Up’
Your conscious is knocking, Let it in, it’ll remind you of being Humane, empathetic, compassionate, striving To ‘Wake Up’ others with you collecting Them one at a time, uniting, growing, In voice and power of the many, balancing The scale of colonial consumerism compacting Your goals into a materialistic being Rather than a human feeling Others’ plight, and appreciating, With certitude, what you have as striking In its simplicity and safety, conquering The world with justice and equality without blubbering.
My poetry book, Perfectly Flawed poetry for change, is available on all eplatforms including Amazon. It was on the finalist list for the Canadian Book Club Awards 2023.
Malak Kalmoni. Chehab Excellent use of hypophora, Malak! You use profound questions to focus attention on the nature of home and the uncertainty of the future. Your amazing and touching personal narrative is so poignant and adds great beauty to this poem. Your deep experience justifies your admonition, “Embrace the joy you’re given,/For tomorrow may bring hell or heaven.” Superb poem!! By Linda Powers O’Dell
Home?
Where is home? What is home?
These questions circle Ceaselessly and kindle
The quest for answers for: Where and what is home for?
I’ve immigrated to three Continents searching for thee.
Why do you hide from me? Why do you flee and oblige me
To search you out in lands gone mad? How is that fair on a child who feels bad?
From the tropics, to the Mediterranean, To North America, in search of what you mean.
The child in me Misses the simplicity of love,
Laughter that is innate, But shaken with wars and fate,
That take away all joy and faith In a moment of stolen breath.
Embrace the joy you’re given, For tomorrow may bring hell or heaven.
My poetry book, Perfectly Flawed poetry for change, is available on all eplatforms including Amazon. It was on the finalist list for the Canadian Book Club Awards 2023.
Malak Kalmoni. Chehab Your descriptions of autumn are glorious, Malak! Comparing the fallen leaves to a lion’s mane is brilliant, especially as you connect them with fallen glory. Then you extend your metaphor to humans: it takes courage, the heart of a lion, to drop our pretenses and show our true selves, vulnerable though they may be. Surviving the freeze of winter our spirits gallop toward renewal, all the joys of rebirth. Wonderful structure, rhythm and rhymes! Marvelous poem!! I didn’t know about lion’s mane, both the orange flowering plant and the mushroom that grows on trees, such an amazing thing! By, Linda Powers O’Dell
Lamb’s Flourish
As the colors of fall turn into reds, Yellows, burnished greens, browns, That scatter the ground in their lion’s Mane, their fallen glory, sad domains
Where it takes the heart of a lion To shed your colorful dress of a parroting wren, Exposing your vulnerability, a lamb in a pen, Waiting for nature’s freeze to be a hen
That protects her chicks from the cold Breeze stirring death in a breath, bold Stealth to hand over death to the unsuspecting old Bones, trunks, plants, whose hold
On life is precarious, but chance’s Regalia leads the weak into a prance’s Gallop towards spring, burgeoning lances Of beauty, strength, flowing stealing glances
At the reappearing hues of greens Enshrining nature with a depth that preens With its glory of colors, resounding in ferns Hanging onto trees, like burrs, never spurns
The life flowing through vains Flooding feelings of powerful cranes Spreading through the undergrowth in pains Of rebirth’s splendor and grains.
Let the lion’s mane flourish On the grounds, never selfish In sharing its beauty, that’ll never perish As long as you believe in the glow of the parish.
My poetry book, Perfectly Flawed poetry for change, is available on all eplatforms including Amazon. It was on the finalist list for the Canadian Book Club Awards 2023.
Malak Kalmoni. Chehab Fantastic poem, Malak! Counting calories is hell! This poem is an excellent indictment of how we allow ourselves to be brainwashed by cultural norms, thus setting ourselves up to be victimized by crass marketeers of fraud. You as poet do proffer the hope that we may be awakened, enlightened by love, but that too often turns out to be a fairy tale. You raise such profound questions.To what extent are we shaped by stories and expectations? How free are we when we are so susceptible to cultural influences. You’ve created gut wrenching, powerful images and some wonderful scattered rhymes: hen/pen/wren, refrain/brainwashed, flees/deep, etc..Hurray!! By, Linda Powers O’Dell
Your poem is a masterclass in satire, Malak Kalmoni Chehab perfectly captures the endless cycle of dieting with such finesse, the way you weave words is truly creative. By, Ritu Shyam
Thank you for the honor and your hard work.
Diet
Diet shmyiet, what a gross lie it Is told to men and women To market Products, tasteless, gross hen
Where the pen is the dieter’s Wren speaking in a singsong Refrain to honor the brainwashed Who follow like Lambs to the slaughters
As they count calories, Exercise till exhaustion flees Into Snow White’s deep sleeps To be woken, only, by love’s
Kiss, a fairytale designed, Like the diet, shmiyet, to inculcate A perception of self that changed With trends of beauty’s fate.
My poetry book, Perfectly Flawed poetry for change, is available on all eplatforms including Amazon. It was on the finalist list for the Canadian Book Club Awards 2023
Poetry for Change 