Tag: Perfectly Flawed: poetry for change

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Sunrise or Sunset

What’s your favorite time of day?

Sunrise and sunset, the colors, the hope, the beauty of each transcends their transience. The quiet of each is a time of reflection that I take in order to assess what I’ve accomplished each day. I question my decisions, were they right? Did I hurt anyone? What can I do to make amends? But, most importantly, I take the time to voice my gratitude for the things I have and those I don’t.

Let the beauty of those times enrobe you in their mystery and hope propelling you into the unknown with a positive outlook.

Author of Perfectly Flawed, poetry for change.

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Greetings, Life

Hello life!

What have you seen?
How have you been?
Has time, in its transience, kept you keen?

Have you asked it its reason for being?
Have you asked destiny why it’s fleeing?
Have you asked faith why it’s redeeming?

Life, I wish you could respond,
My questions are many and correspond
To all that happens that only seems morbid.

News and social media, all expound on
All that is negative: violence, death, con,
Racism, segregation, depravity, and poison.

All that pessimism holds no importance
To our health and emotional stability, whose significance
Vis a vis a world that’s dominated by impudence.

Alter, change, deviate from all that’s the same,
Be ‘you’, unique, strong, and don’t play their game,
Play yours, turn it into a burning flame.


©️Malak kalmoni chehab ©️


Author of Perfectly Flawed, poetry for change

https://www.amazon.ca/Perfectly-Flawed-poetry-Malak-Kalmoni/dp/1525582518

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Stuffed grape vine

What’s your favorite recipe?

This very lebanese recipe comes in both a vegetarian and meat variation. I love both, really, but the ones that trigger love, family, and feasting on religious holidays, is the meat version. That one is made with lamb shoulder as a base, with the grape leaves stuffed with rice and ground beef, some top it with stuffed zucchini, but in our home it was just the meat and grape leaves. They are left to Simmer for about 12 hours so that the meat falls off the bones, the leaves become paper thin-easy to digest, and the rice absorbed all the flavors. We’d usually eat it with pita bread, fresh mint leaves, and green onions.

The smell of it cooking throws me back to my childhood, when I first got married, gatherings, and just happy times.

Poet, author of Perfectly Flawed: poetry for change.

https://www.amazon.ca/Perfectly-Flawed-poetry-Malak-Kalmoni/dp/1525582518

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Ordinary

How would you describe yourself to someone who can’t see you?

I’m neither beautiful nor ugly. I am considered the shrimp in my family, as they think I’m short! I have shoulder-length hair, almond shaped brown eyes, hooded by my upper lid, a smallish nose that savors food aromas, and pink lips that try to be honest without hurting others.

I believe my character shows in my voice and simple actions of a nurturer. My voice is generally low and calm, unless provoked. I’m very sensitive, which shows in how carefully I choose my words, as I understand their possible negative effects on the person I’m speaking to.

I also wear a hijab, which helps me protect my modesty, keeps me humble, and respectful in the presence of others.

https://www.amazon.ca/Perfectly-Flawed-poetry-Malak-Kalmoni/dp/1525582518

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Hawaii

If you won two free plane tickets, where would you go?

I’d take my youngest child, a girl, 23 already, with me as she’s had a fantasy about going to Hawaii. I believe her teenage adulation of the show, Hawaii Five 0, is in part to blame for her fascination with the island. The other reason for it is that it has tropical warm weather that heats you from the inside out.

https://www.amazon.ca/Perfectly-Flawed-poetry-Malak-Kalmoni/dp/1525582518

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Flickering Flame Fly


‘Three things can never be taken back: a word
That’s spoken, an arrow speeding away from
its bowstring, and time that lapses.’*

As I look upon the candle flame,
Flame, I let reality drift into memories,
Memories good and bad alike, linger,
Linger with emotions that stomp.

Stomp out the flickering negativity,
Negativity, that drives you into a chasm,
Chasm, that festers in agony,
Agony of disappointment and betrayal.

Betrayal wrapped in honeyed words,
Words you can’t take back, flay,
Flay you open in twain. Obscuring,
Obscuring your light from shining,

Shining brighter than perfidy.
Perfidy of a stabbing arrow,
Arrow that starts feuds, wars,
Wars that bring death and destruction,

Destruction of lives, property, livelihoods,
Livelihoods that bring families, friends,
Friends and community to a stand-still.
Still that wee flame ignites passions, faith,

Faith that overcome the lapse,
Lapse of time, that flows like the sea,
Sea of time, that drowns each moment,
Moment in a flood that can’t be touched.

Let the flirting flame engulf your heart,
Heart with its heat and adulation to optimism.


*An Arabic saying, translated by the author inspired this poem, as well as the picture.

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Gratitude

How do you express your gratitude?

Depending on what I’m grateful for, I express it differently. When I’m grateful for a job well done, I express it by voicing my gratitude to those who helped achieve the goal. Otherwise, when I’m just expressing gratitude for the things that are given to me, hearing, smell, vision, taste buds, limbs, health, intelligence, and others, I turn my gratitude to God who gave us more than we deserve.

I feel that God has a hand in all the things that I do, even my success and family, as without his Godly gifts to fall back on, I wouldn’t have been able to achieve the things that I have. That’s why, most of my gratitude is directly to Him, via prayer.

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Holding my baby

Describe one of your favorite moments.

I waited 9 months to meet her. Through my swollen belly, cramps, hot flashes, sweats, and excruciating pain, I finally got to hold her, Fida is her name. She’ll be 29 at the end of August, but the second she was placed in my arms, she became all mine. Her smell, her tiny fingers, toes, arms, tummy, diapers, and sweet voice. Even when she cried, she was quiet, calm, and too cute for her own good. She made me a mother, teacher, friend, mentor, who surpassed her loving mother.

That moment is still ingrained in my heart and mind. I take it out when I’m down, peruse the happiness, joy, fear, and the miracle of birth, and know that the world will make a positive turn, in which it will revere the family unit, it’s simplicity and loyalty.