Ala Ghawas Piano, Guitar, Bass, Beats, Percussion & Vocals
Ahmed Alqasim Bass & Vocals
Abdulrahman Malallah Drums
Eman Haddad Vocals
Khalid Alshamlan Piano
Ali Alqaseer Drums
Faisal Sheikh Guitar & Vocals
Abdulla Haji Clarinet
Mohammed Rashid Guitar
Fawaz Alshaikh Vocals
Ali Malik Vocals
Hameed Al Saeed Vocals
Written & Produced by Ala Ghawas
Strings Arranged by Ala Ghawas & Mohammed Haddad
Engineered & Mixed by Abdulla Jamal
Cover Artwork by Abbas Al Mosawi
...For Yasmeen & Yousif
Tryst by Ala Ghawas
NEW ALBUM OUT NOW

Ala Ghawas is an independent singer-songwriter, lyricist, musician and record producer from Bahrain, considered by many as one of Bahrain’s most important artists of his generation. Drawing inspirations from poets and songwriting masters ‘Jackson Browne’ and ‘Jeff Buckley’, Ghawas produced a compelling body of work that illustrates the influences of his life in the form of songs which helped him release 2 studio LPs, 3 studio EPs and 3 live LPs during the span of 13 years. His latest studio LP, Tryst, is highly regarded as his career-defining and most self-assured record to date and featured his most successful singles 'Red' and 'Boudoir'.
ALA GHAWAS
DISCOGRAPHY

Live from Grace is an introspective journey into the songs of Bahraini singer-songwriter, Ala Ghawas. Presented in a sentimental live concert around his closest family-and-friends and accompanied by a constellation of Bahrain's finest musicians, including Ahmed Alqasim, Fawaz Alshaikh, Abdulla Haji, Ali Alqaseer, Isa Najem, Eman Haddad & Hassan Haddad. Concert was filmed/directed by Saleh Nass and recorded/engineered by Abdulla Jamal.

![Ala Ghawas - Atonement [Live from Grace]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/yDzuQfyg4Sw/mqdefault.jpg)
![Ala Ghawas - Boudoir [Live from Grace]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/3urECKR1jr4/mqdefault.jpg)
![Ala Ghawas - Rebellion [Live from Grace]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/hu5Nfc80gSc/mqdefault.jpg)
![Ala Ghawas - Ember [Live from Grace]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ytQtjWNM-Uo/mqdefault.jpg)
![Ala Ghawas - Elsewhere [Live from Grace]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/uQ2Cc0jWRAk/mqdefault.jpg)
![Ala Ghawas - Veteran [Live from Grace]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/CSyVWuGg8tc/mqdefault.jpg)
![Ala Ghawas - Red [Live from Grace]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/9utF8sAKts8/mqdefault.jpg)
![Ala Ghawas - Replica [Live from Grace]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/tb4Tm9GBIzs/mqdefault.jpg)
LIVE FROM GRACE
...OR RATHER POEMS
REPLICA
HUMS, 2007
I flew those airplanes and I crashed those wheels
Like a vagabond in the search for something precious, something real
Look what I found now - the same old fish in my creel
The scars on my heart are getting so damn clear
My occasional tears are so foolish but so sincere
It makes me wonder, is it you yearning here?
You and I have never made it to the time borders
I spent my life in classrooms and you spent yours by the water
Though the only dream we ever had was to be footballers
You never mind weeping, you never mind to bleed
The dreamy Romeo and the delicate branch from this family’s tree
You jail the hearts so fast but you break so easily
I’m just your replica
I’m just your replica
(You’re the real diamond)
Now I seem to know myself when your light departs
All this time you’re the original god’s masterpiece of art
I have the money and the deeds but I don’t have your heart
(You’re the real diamond)
And all your virtues that I refused to borrow
are the essences of my long journey to form my own duo
It’s the same old-fashioned song but on a new piano
I’m just your replica
I’m just your replica
Boston - February, 2007
REDHEADED WOMAN
HUMS, 2007
She wears a green summer dress with cherubs around her
She stumbles in and out of this train
I came to welcome her back home
But apparently she forgot my name
Her careless look keeps rolling this pain
It sent me to heaven and hell again
She said she’s just a new heartbreak in this chain
And it’s all over
She spent years and years roaming these towns
And I spent them looking for her eyes
I kept on believing she’ll be back
But like a homeless sparrow, she flies and flies
And now she’s my favorite sad song at the break of the dawn
She’s my meaning of failure in the eyes of everyone
She’s my sweetest fairy tale I never owned
And it’s all over
She got her red hair shining and a ticket in her hand
A couple of bodyguards and a handsome man
She’s got my tears, my songs and my plans
And it’s all over
I was never hers,
She was never mine
And it’s all over, redheaded woman
Hamad Town - November, 2005
PAINT ME A HEART
WHISPERS, 2008
Hey love, you’re drowning in your colors
Don’t you wanna have some rest?
You’re searching for yourself in me,
I know that, don’t resist
Hey love, I spent years on your bench
Can’t you feel my weary chest?
I’m tired of loving you
I’m tired of showing you my best
Because I’m burning in a gone down deal
Yearning for your art to heal
Faking what I feel
Paint me a heart right now for real
Hey love, stop drawing my face
It’s growing ugly and old
Dig my heart
Don’t judge me from your painting board
So paint me a heart, though I know it’s gonna be fake
Paint me a heart, for someone else to break
(you never loved me anyway)
Paint me a heart, with any color,
any shape, any heartbeat rate
Because I’m burning in a gone down deal
Yearning for your art to heal
Faking what I feel
Paint me a heart right now for real
Boston - November, 2007
HOLY BOOKS
WHISPERS, 2008
I’m still here, hanging at the corners
Seeking your heart within people
The sad of them and the playful
In these dark years where love is shameful
And I’ve got nothing but your laughter echoed in my head
My heart is where the sunset is
Where your truth denies your promises
In the wait for another dream, probably
My love...
We turn around for love abroad
We hunt for love that’s outlawed
We worship different holy books from the same God
It’s the same you and me
The busker and the refugee
In the wait for another dream, probably
My love...
Why have you taken my Sugarbee from me?
Sanad - October, 2008
DAUGHTER OF THE SUN
SCREAMS, 2009
There were times when I heard you weeping
You came to be embraced and I pretended I was sleeping
I haven’t realized that my presence could pull you through
From the unkind things that the world has said to you
Life threw dirt on me while your light lingered
And you were there with me by the flood of love’s hunger
But I was too troubled to see how beautiful you grew
Daughter of the sun, help me get over you
Baby, baby stay
I want to tell you I love you again
Baby, baby stay
I want to send your pain down the drain
Baby, baby stay
I want to play with you in the rain
Like the two children we used to be
My head was always filled up with the stupid dreams I drew
My heart was always suffering from my failures and the things I couldn’t do
And I haven’t realized how far you flew from me
Daughter of the sun, forgive me
Boston - November, 2007
VAGABONDS
ARMOR, 2013
Me and my friend
Never had a dread
Never needed a home to return to
Forever unwed with dreams unfed
We’re unarmored in a war
between the innocence of youth and the pain of aging truth
Silently, dead
Me and my friend
New York City - December, 2012
UNARMORED
ARMOR, 2013
Days of yore, have we gone too far?
Time has declared a war
There was a place when we were young and beautiful
Blaze of change has burnt it all
And I don't know why
And I don't know why
Mother told you god is no diverse
and your purpose is to fatten your purse
So you're going deaf by the saddest applause
till you couldn't tell who your enemy was
And I don't know why
And I don't know why
But your memory haunted me to take me home
My love for you was enormous
You’re the only sun I drew
But my naked heart lacked an armor
I couldn’t let those rays come through
Glimpses from the untold end
have split my world in two
And I don't know why
And I don't know why
Barbar - May, 2013
THE SILENT PARADE
OF FADING YOUTH
ARMOR, 2013
-Helplessly silent-
[Instrumental]
Hamad Town - April, 2011
ELSEWHERE
ARMOR, 2013
Dawn has broken
over the frozen
city of tocsin, my good friend
And I’m still rebelling
on the sidewalks
with my unarmored heart against the howling wind
I’ve been searching for the key for years but the door was open
You think I’m a fighter,
a killer,
a winner, but you’re wrong
I’m only a busker
writing love songs
for worthless women to keep me warm
I’ve been searching for the key for years but the door was open
Edinburgh - December, 2009
BOUDOIR
TRYST, 2017
Spare your love
Spare your love
I was sad to see you leave like a carnal enemy
You warred over peace when you were with me
Had I outshone the stars, would I climb your bed alone?
But I sold my heart for the price of a song
What a taste of mystery, adored in your Persian arms
A mystical memory that did me harm
There’s a pain you overlooked I will never feel your love
I’m hooked, cooked and booked but I don't want to be in love
Eleven wounds that separate a poet from a randy man
For your boudoir fabricates the dreams we ought to ban
So, spare your love
Spare your love, love
Barbar - December, 2015
MARS
TRYST, 2017
(Only then was she free to grow, only then was he free to know)
Hey, fool of mine
Can you see my face?
I set your bridge on fire
because of your bloody last name
And I would trade your head for another bad love
to fuel my flame
But I'm far from the final aim
Far from losing this game
Far from having you framed
Far from the ocean of madness that crowned our fame
(I buried you alive, you buried me alive)
Your face has the flair for a perfect plot
A streak of affirmations from dire fuss
Your will is the same, to shine or to maim
There, you mute the world around me and say:
“You’re a wet dream in my bed
and your blood keeps my roses red.”
So you govern the light for your chessman
Am I your chosen chessman, my love?
My soul is locked
My brain is fucked
And I don't know what to do
I don't know what to do, love
Barbar - June, 2016
EMBER
TRYST, 2017
You said:
“Eight flaws will follow
my halfhearted sorrow
and deepen in me.
What you see
is a dervish agitated
with love unrequited
like a burning sea.”
And I pled:
“If pillow talks are ephemeral,
the friend in me is eternal,
so don’t leave me.
My love, please.
Pain with you is savored,
your mouth is coffee flavored
- my dependency.”
You wailed:
“I'll be your wisdom’s seeder,
I'll be your art’s feeder,
I have to flee.”
And I wept:
“I want you to remember,
I'll fan this lonely ember
till it dies in me.”
How white should this darkness be?
Barbar - November, 2016
SUGARBEE
HUMS, 2007
Well, it’s been 4 years and a half since you’ve captured my heart
I should’ve told you from the start but I didn’t have the guts
And I’ve spent all this time swinging those strings
and learning those things
I thought it would make me a king
Now, my heart skips 7 beats and a half when you said you’re leaving
How I hoped you’ve been deceiving me, oh Sugarbee
My world is going astray
I’m crawling right behind you wondering what to say
And you’re already miles away
But I made you sing
I made you fly without wings
This can’t be the end
I’m getting over you
Though I know it’s true
There’ll never be another you
Oh Sugarbee
My tiny dancer, Sugarbee
You nearly killed me, Sugarbee
Hamad Town - March, 2006
FADHEELA
HUMS, 2007
I remember my mewl in our home’s balcony
On my first day in school when you ran to me
There, when I first felt loved
And I remember your white hand in the dark so sunny
It took me to my dreamland where Tom Sawyer is waiting for me
Again, your love forced my pain to fall to sleep
I remember the muse you’ve lost within me
And the songs of Fairuz you chanted constantly
There, when I first wanted to sing
And I remember my silly blues when a girl gets hold of me
So emotionally abused in my red room, solitary
Again, your love falls like rain and runs so deep
Was I worth the seeds of love you’ve thrown in me?
Boston - March, 2007
REBELLION
WHISPERS, 2008
Father, I’m running through the fire
I don’t want to belong, I just need a place to admire
I run and I run towards the sun
Thinking about the things I could’ve done about it
My friends are gone, one by one,
to the fighting, they just can’t live without it
You know I’ve never lost the faith within
If God is with us, then who’s with them?
Mother, I’m drowning in my desires
I just wanted to keep a wife and a home
but they call me a thief and a liar
I drown and I drown in this fucked up town
The roots in the ground had poisoned my fortune
I see people meltdown for unknown grounds
What kind of love can cause this tension?
It doesn’t really matter where it all begins
Because we prayed and we cried
and we moaned and we failed and we sinned
Call it rebellion
I found myself in this rebellion
In this rebellion
I’m not a blind civilian
I don’t bleed my head
I don’t wear the black
I don’t close my eyes and ears to prove piety
I don’t grow my beard
I don’t preach slaughter
I don’t raise a sword for the lord to show loyalty
And that’s what I see
What’s wrong with unity?
Boston - October, 2007
ATONEMENT
SCREAMS, 2009
Buskers at the corners burning their guitars
Their mothers cried blood when you’re gone
Their girlfriends in a row sketching your face on the walls
With candles in their hands when you’re gone
And I don’t know why you’ve been faking those smiles of yours
And I don’t know why you've been waiting for love to bring you home
They turned your playground into a churchyard
They named it by you when you’re gone
Love is for trade, porn is the currency
and music is forbidden by the lord when you’re gone
And I don’t know why you’ve been faking those smiles of yours
And I don’t know why you've been waiting for love to bring you home
A fragile vagabond in the making
(on the way to his own shining star)
A reckless hobo eternally waking
(with his soul hanging onto a broken guitar)
You’ve been dreaming with your tears run dry
Nobody taught you how to dive or run or fly
I missed your last sigh
Jackie told you: “You better quit this scene, before it leans,
before it keens, before it messes up your genes (think about it).”
And I was thinking: “Tell him something more for love’s sake,
you’re his God and he’s just fucking sixteen.”
He said: ”Classrooms won’t do you any good, you really should be in Hollywood if you could - and that’s what I mean.”
And I thought: “He was born to feel misunderstood.
He was the most ill-fated kid that I have ever seen.”
Mothers cried blood when you’re gone
Mothers cried blood when you’re gone
Sanad - April, 2009
PROPHETS
SCREAMS, 2009
The sound of your sweet breath triggers death, bends into the telephone
It cages my bitter bones in your frozen zone
The mathematical love of yours still ignores my fanatical care
And you just can’t declare your religious mind is spacing elsewhere
So, you freeze my burning sun with words like bullets from a gun
And I’m lost here on the run
Between what you’ve said and done
Between our prophet’s son and your orphan
Tacit terms adorn your lips, deceiving tips, they mess with my head
They lead my sugary dread to my sweet deathbed
And my desire remains unfed
I’m cutting my roots so deep so you said:
“Run baby run, you’re better off than dead.”
My blood is on the gory line between your prophet and mine
But the misery you designed and the sorrow you defined
is so beautiful and divine
What’s the cost of dying in your arms?
I killed and drilled to know ya
I crossed the ocean to show ya
You’re etched on my skin
I wailed and jailed to steal ya
I bled my heart to feel ya
And you’re worth all my sins
What’s the cost of dying in your arms?
Sanad - April, 2009
FIREWATER
ARMOR, 2013
He waved hello for my bold debut
Then cut my wings before I flew
I was working the sun waiting on a cue
Was it the curse of my own virtue?
Or the tears of youthful joy that blurred my view?
I thought my vivid dreams owed me a rescue
He said: "Don't don't don't don't don't don't try to make me happy,
I will steal your heart away. You’ll renew every truth and repair every wound but I’ll still make you obey the greedy monkey on the throne today."
Here I grew alone into the rebel I knew
With all my debts and all my revenue
The silent parade of fading youth is due
He said: "Don't don't don't don't don't don't try to make me happy, I will make your soul pay. Come on and be a snitch, you sassy corporate bitch, do you really want to play? You were never born to love the money anyway.”
I’m burning in firewater
I’m drowning in firewater
Saar - November, 2011
OLD ENEMY
ARMOR, 2013
I’ve been waiting for you to thrill me
Like the way you’ve tried to kill me
I was drawn to my blood and tears
But in the wait for your love or hate
Another hope just shines too late
I guess I wasted all those years
But I’m still here
Are you still my crying charmer?
I’m old to build my heart an armor
And I could fight back with my fear
I know I was torn by your lying light
Then damaged by your foolish sight
But you oddly remain so dear
And I’m still here
Are you still my crying charmer?
Manchester - October, 2012
VETERAN
ARMOR, 2013
Rage has kept the sound of your heart cutting through my brain
Rage is a song from your dream that washed away my pain
Where the melody rose then died again and again and again
till it’s lost in vain
Wayhay, does it still mess with you, my friend?
Woho, or did it grow out of trend?
Wayhay, your raging heart never failed to defend your soul
Rage has echoed again from these headstones
Your sweet rage is like a warning for a pool of vagabonds
I know they stole your crown
They killed your myth and left it drown in your citadel
while you were homeward bound
But god gave you away and I’m lost then found
Wayhay, does it still mess with you, my friend?
Woho, or did it grow out of trend?
Wayhay, your raging heart never failed to defend your soul
I’m yet to blow the song
The realm is on the fall
And the veteran is dead after all
Wayhay, does it still mess with you, my friend?
Woho, or did it grow out of trend?
Wayhay, your burning shrine will never descend
You’re gold...
Saar - September, 2011
RED
TRYST, 2017
We’re covered in red of the desperate me and the elusive you
Tell me, who's worse?
The pain we revisit every night has set the stage
for a grand death well rehearsed
This love is doomed forever
Drenched in the blood we shed, it’s all red
Are you deeply feeling dead?
Because I do, I do
I see myself suffering from missing you
before you lock me gently in the tomb
You’ll be hanging every drop you bleed inside you
till you finally return to the womb
I’m not the man I thought I was
You're not the woman I killed to wed, it’s all red
Adorning our deathbed
Because we’re through, we’re through
Barbar - April, 2017
11
TRYST, 2017
The man you hoped I would be is here with me
He built walls from books of theology
The ones you left for him to read
The man you hoped I would be
Dressed up like saints
The godless domain he drew kept us poles apart
Him and my infidel heart
The man you hoped I would be is here with me
He grew trees all over his property
with pretty dogs roaming free
The man you hoped I would be
Baked his own bread
and sang your every morning tributes
for your forgetful fading roots
Does he love things unsaid and claim he knows better?
Does he slow dance to your burning room into the arms of another?
Barbar - April, 2016
8
TRYST, 2017
She whirls around the sun, I just cannot keep up with her pace
These poor eyes of mine never saw anything like her grace
She speaks of utopia and trades a kiss for a gun
Nothing is more powerful than the beauty of a woman
She used my burning heart to warm up her bones, with no regret
And I'm left here on the verge, I cannot bet and I cannot forget
So she gifted me a love song with a worn out ribbon
Nothing is more powerful than the beauty of a woman
Barbar - February, 2015
WHITE
TRYST, 2017
Battle of the sexes won’t end
It’s a heavenly trend
Your fire is due for exchange
I know the deepest fibers of your soul
She tore and sold
But your heart will grow and change
Forget the familiar and meet the strange
You offered her a wedding dress
before a moonlight tryst
Well, history is free to rearrange
And if a foreign honey burns a hell
outside your shell
Extend your heartbeat's range
Forget the familiar and meet the strange
Barbar - April, 2017
HYMN
HUMS, 2007
Urging to roam
Urging to fly back home
Here on the snow-covered domes
A new soul
An aging face
An aware heart in the wrong place
I left my dreams on a sailing ship
to be carried on by my unborn daughter
Will I ever be loved?
Will I ever be thought of like my mother thought of my father?
I’ve got pictures I managed to paint and I’ve got songs I left undone
Should I follow the light of my own little candle or the sun of everyone?
I wonder…
I wonder…
Boston - January, 2007
MOURN
WHISPERS, 2008
Do you remember the days I was only nineteen?
I used to chase your smile
at the avenues and the magazines
My heart enjoyed skipping beats after beats for you
Now I’m growing older in terms of maturity
Against my childish dreams and living’s duties
And the unforgettable beauty of you
But I still mourn
Lay down here by the telephone
Mourn, all night long
From my blood to my bones, for you
So I’m stepping forward without a trace
With my hunger for love and the memory of your face
And the passion I misplaced in you
But I still mourn
Lay down here by the telephone
Mourn, all night long
From my blood to my bones, for you
Boston - December, 2006
LONELY THROUGH THE CROWD
WHISPERS, 2008
Pretty girls standing by the door
Hearts of gold in their hands and still searching for more
Fragments from the past
Just come and mess with my dying soul
And all the city boys have packed up and gone
Leaving some beautiful schemes of houses left undone
They think that they were fooled
By those dreams they haven’t won
Mama, this misty town ain’t the same
Mama, isn’t it a shame?
What I became, another loser in this game
Mama, this dusty town ain’t the same
Mama, isn’t it a shame?
I’m being blamed for being lonely through the crowd
No one knows my name
No one knows I’m in pain
Let me out, Ma
Let me out, Ma
Hamad Town - December, 2002
RED CASH & BLUE BLOOD
SCREAMS, 2009
Yesterday I killed a man named soldier
I cut off his throat and buried his gun
Today that buried gun came to seed
A grey tree fruiting bullets and bombs
My daughters and the grey tree
are growing under the same sun
Oh God, what have my hands done?
Another man called soldier came back from the dead
He broke my bones and dug a grave for two
And while my soul was departing my guilty body
I’ve realized that my name was soldier too
Our grave is honored for the souls we slaughtered
Though the sand on top is wholly covered with
Red cash and blue blood with faces in the mud
Red cash and blue blood and hatred scars
Now I’m looking at this gory place from the sky above
I’m a dead soldier and I’m still on the run
Cupids and devils are indifferent here
They don’t care what we’ve lost or what we’ve won
The maps to heaven are lost and scattered
And the holy books in God’s kingdom
are completely colored with
Red cash and blue blood with faces in the mud
Red cash and blue blood and hatred scars
London - December, 2007
ROADIE
SCREAMS, 2009
It was right here in this leaf-covered house by the glow
A hundred summers ago
I wrote down the very first verse on the cracks of the pretty sidewalks
My guitar was still ice-cold
You wouldn’t want to know me
You wouldn’t want to show me
There was you and me and the 14 beautiful souls
sharing the beds and the meals with the other 7 next door
And as the time travel away I was still the same dull delicate bard
in a sea of tears to explore
I was never bold, I was never whole
Dear God, don’t take me to heaven if there’s no rock and roll
I came all the way to tell you I’m still alive
A tortured roadie at the age of 25
All your thirsty sailors have sucked my blood
and you've just watched me nosedive
You wouldn’t want to reach me
You wouldn’t want to teach me
You let me see death and birth, pain and mirth, the joy of wealth
and the struggle to survive
I’ve seen enough for the final verse to fly around, to stick behind
and to finally arrive
Those holy germs have left a big hole in my soul
Dear God, don’t take me to heaven if there’s no rock and roll
Sons & daughters, people of mine, here’s my everlasting rhyme
I’m going now but I’ll see you under different skies so get by
I’m ready to go
(Dear God, don’t take me to heaven if there’s no rock and roll)
I’m ready to go
(Dear God, don’t take me to heaven if there’s no rock and roll)
Boy: "Ala, are we there yet?"
Man: "I don’t know, maybe we should sing it one more time."
Boy: "Okay."
Together: "Dear God, don’t take me to heaven if there’s no rock and roll."
Boston - February, 2007
RAVEN
ARMOR, 2013
She’s like a rose shining out every way from the darkness of noon
Fighting every test of time but burnt too soon
And her love is murder adorned into maroon
It melts my heart down and drags me to map out her space
and call her god of moon
She kissed my back and whispered love to burn my firewood
I had to drink from her water more than I should
I maybe have told her to keep me there for good
She has the eyes of my unborn daughter
and knows the fear of my childhood
She’s underneath my skin
(She came across with a surely fading bloom to make me feel like a groom)
She’s underneath my skin
(She lightened up my everlasting gloom in a very cold bedroom)
Like a raven she was born to soar and raised to roar
She’s underneath my skin
and what have I got to win?
A broken hearts trader with an original sin
Underneath my skin left, right and within
A rush of love disease blowing up my veins
And the rush goes on and on and on and on…
Hamad Town - December, 2010
BAD BLOOD
ARMOR, 2013
So, they vowed you a rainbow if you make it rain
If you drag demons to be slain
No, you're caged on the morrow counting your deeds
And fighting senseless planted creeds
But you've been out of waters
Then you’ve been out of dollars
Till you ran out of luck in the middle of war
So burn your fickle scheme to save your last scream
You’ve got bad blood you just can't chase a dream
As bitter as it may seem
You’re no supreme
You’re just another ill drop in the stream from the losing team
So, have they grayed your rainbow?
Barbar - January, 2013
ASHES
ARMOR, 2013
Spaces falling in between
You and I, my baby queen
Fading traces
Burning places
Everywhere our hearts have been
Graces gone too far apart
In a fruitless search for your troubled heart
Melting races
Dying faces
You designed my disappointment and called it art
Ages drifting in blue
With a husband who curses god like you do
Dirty wages
Crowded cages
On the way to burn the house I built with you
You’ll never know how much I loved you
Shattered paces
Scattered pages
Edinburgh - December, 2009
ATOM
TRYST, 2017
I don't know what you are to me
I can only learn love from your school of poetry
But I feel your atom in me
Like a drop of fresh water that made my heart grow warmer
and the waves in my head calmer from the same old sea
I don't know what you are to me
But I know an atom of love in every victory
And within the silence between you and me
A million stories were told from books of silver and gold
to make history unfold wordlessly
What are you to me?
Barbar - January, 2015
VENUS
TRYST, 2017
Tycoons have showed me that
the world is bound to shame
Naturalization and sequestration
are their only triumphs to claim
In a country where government fools
and imams tyrannically rule
You sang Mitchell to the moon
Well, I would have dissented
but the music in me died
On a skyscraper I was burdened
by my need to hide
Just when blood fills the streets,
the prisons and the creeks
You swayed to Dylan’s tunes
I have a nephew who taught me
to embrace all my wrongs
My niece, she reminds me of you,
dreams of Venus in all her songs
While my maps are sacrosanct
around teachers I’ve never thanked
You dared Mars to bloom
Glaciers come and go
My terrain is yours to draw
Make it green and blue
And the joy I fantasize
from the love I theorize
is awaiting your hue
Because it’s you
It had to be you…
Barbar - December, 2016
MAUSOLEUM
TRYST, 2017
Your dulcet violin was clear
Imprisoned my heart and ear
For twelve Julys last year when god was here
Many picture hooks on the wall
Many paint stains on the floor
And the love a father should nurture
is thrown out the door
Your apparition lives with me
through delight and odium
In one big shining mausoleum
It’s a bright sadness, you see
Love is hard to hold endlessly
Love is old, bold and untold for you and me
Found new skin immune from your grace
Bought new eyes that don't know your face
And the mother who’s killed within you came to marble this place
So I dance with my unborn daughter
to the music of your requiem
In one big shining mausoleum
Barbar - March, 2017