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“In a rare guest appearance, now
on this site a new poem by SIAM, arguably the best living
American poet, commemorating Edward Said and the struggle for
Palestine. SIAM combines deep Sufi mysticism of Rumi, and
all-American cosmic spirit of Walt Whitman. His poetry is a
natural phenomenon as much as a work of art, and reminds of a
vulcano in full blast of its furnaces, with lava erupting and
rocks flying out: spectacular but scary.
In presence of his poetry, one
feels that the gift of prophecy is still with us, for his is the
language of prophets. Descendent of Native Americans, Africans,
Arabs and Europeans, all-human son of Milton "Cowboy" Smith from
Indianapolis, a graduate of Harvard Divinity School, SIAM lived
with the monks of St Maur until he discovered the mystic
teaching of a Senegalese saint Shaikh Ahmadou Bamba who founded
the Mourid Mystical Order of Islam in the early 1800's. His
poetry is a sign of life sent by the soul of America to the
world, saying: America is still alive.”
~ Israel Shamir
the prophetic poem ~
In Jerusalem
(A poem of Firasah Love and call
to ALL the righteous of the world, on behalf of ALL my brothers
and sisters now dispossessed, dying, and suffering in Palestine;
and on behalf of the memory and honor of the great heroic writer
and academic who spent his life struggling for the Palestinian
cause ~ Edward Said, Nov 1, 1935 - Sept 25, 2003)
1.
i will die in Jerusalem
on a day, neither cold nor hot,
a day told of, long, long ago,
before the Ark of Noah,
Alaihi~Salam,
was built to float, and rest upon
the top of Mount Judi
the place of my birth is also the
place of my death,
the origin is always in the end;
ask Jesus, Alaihi-Salam,
or our Holy Prophet Muhammad,
Sall’Allahu Alaihi was Salam,
their lives can tell you more of
this than i,
but our ending is always in our
beginning,
and our beginning is always in
our end;
all things begin and all things
must end ~ in Jerusalem.
i will die in the streets of
Jerusalem,
on a day of joy amidst weeping,
wailing, and great lamentation,
A MANIFESTATION of
an aftermath to mad, but loving,
and yet, joyous, poetical
prophesying,
though IAM no Prophet
Alaihi-Salam, just another poet,
walking in the footsteps of the
Prophets Alaihi-Salam,
who all went completely mad on
behalf of the establishment
of righteousness in the midst of
unrighteousness, and
justice in the midst of
injustice;
you and my brothers will see ~
because this earth and all flesh
shall see it together,
yet, IAM but ONE of TWO,
that shall dance their MAD dance
in the streets of
Jerusalem together,
on behalf of the
same ONENESS,
the ONENESS
of their brothers’ suffering,
the ONENESS of their brothers’
needs ~
all my brothers in the great land
of Palestine,
all my brothers and sisters who
are dying in the great land of Palestine,
all my brothers who need me and
you in the great land of Palestine,
all my brothers and sisters
waiting on you and me, in the great land of Palestine;
my brothers near the Gaza Strip,
my brothers in Shiloh, Suba,
Kakun, Jafa, and Akka,
my brothers who had thirty-two of
their houses destroyed by bulldozers in the Rafa Refugee camp,
my brothers who are forced to
walk a thin green line that leads to extermination,
nullification, and more death,
all my brothers struggling to
survive all over the Western Bank,
all my brothers in Jericho and
Bethlehem,
all my brothers incarcerated in
ghettos, jails, and prisons,
all my brothers who are being
tortured daily,
my brothers who are being
missiled in their sleep,
my brothers who are being bombed
in their awake,
my brothers who are being
machine-gunned down,
my brothers who are being run out
of town,
all my brothers toward whom the
Israelis act demon possessed ~
and do not care for or caress,
all my brothers who one day have
a place to live ~ and the next day are dispossessed,
all my brothers who have lost
their wives and their children,
all my brothers who have lost
their arms and their legs,
my brothers who have been
blinded,
my brothers who have been
castrated,
my brothers who have been
beheaded,
my brothers who are flame torched
and maimed,
all my brothers who have been
denied and disclaimed,
all my brothers who have lost
their homes and their beds,
all my brothers who are beaten,
shot in the back ~ in the head,
and often left alone for dead,
all my brothers who are being
made to fear and quake ~ all because of an unjust Israeli State.
II.
my wondrous and marvelous friend
~
Reality Call from NEW Berlin
writes to me and reveals,
that you have been Gangrened of
Jewish Settlements ~
the body of your nucleus cut off
and discarded forever,
entire families with the young,
elderly, and invalid,
literally burned and buried alive
beneath the weight
of overturned rubble in brick and
mortar ~ crying, hurting,
needing, bleeding, dying, an
atrocity multiplied to the trillionth monstrosity,
a scientific equation of
devastation that even Albert Einstein or Dr. Frankenstein
could not, and would not
speculate to calculate, an existential hypothesis of Salvador
Dallied proportional distortion, of politicalized
exterminational surrealism in 3-D’d amplification application,
of alien domination, an abomination of horrified occupation,
where hundreds of your villages have been knocked completely off
the face of the earth, to be replaced by a distorted Jewish face
and race of immanent domain and foul disgrace, a policy of
imperialistic expansion of manifest destiny without any right of
justice or equality for Your People’s Spirit, wrapped in sacred
fragility of flesh, bone, and blood, your dwellings taken away
in a single day or blown away in a solitary night of
catastrophic fright ~
cities like Nahlal arising in the
place Mahlul,
Kibbutz Gvat arising in the place
Jibta,
Kibbutz Sarid arising in the
place of Huneifis,
and Kefar Yehushu’a arising in
the place of Tal al-Shuman
CITIES AND AREAS WHERE CHEMICAL
AND BIOLOGICAL WARFARE IS
IMPLIED,
SUPPLIED,
APPLIED,
AND CAN NOT BE DENIED - LIKE,
nerve gas used on demonstrators
in Gaza,
and water poisoning of those at
the siege of Acre.
III.
but it was you my brothers, who
laid foundation, and built and beautified the original land; you
are the heart and soul of the land and without you, the great
land of Palestine has no heart and has no soul; because you are
the salt of this land and you are it’s gold.
Shamir, my beloved Ustad, teaches
me,
that in your veins run the blood
of ancient Aegean warriors,
and that it was you who fought
bravely on the plains of Karameh,
that you are the poetry of Mahmud
Darwish, the wisdom of Edward Said,and my Ustad says, there
would be no Bible if there were no you,no Star of Ghassul, or
Castles of Monfort, and Belvoir too, no Mount Carmel Monastery,
no churches of the Holy Sepulcher and Nativity, no temples of
Jerusalem and Mount Gerizim by necessity, no harbors of Ceasarea
Philippi, no Mosques of Haram As-Sharif, and no Judas to become
the biblical thief, and no disciple of Jesus, Alaihi ‘Salam, to
wash his feet.
you are the perfection of
Palestine’s wondrous Olive Oil,
the first disciples who helped
Jesus, Alaihi ‘Salam, deliver his sermon on the Mount,the great
warriors, who defeated Napoleon Bonaparte, and without you, the
palaces of Jericho and Samaria today would not be art.
yes, it was you my brothers who
built and beautified the land,
and now the world must come to
help you make and take a stand,
an Intifada call, an Intifada
wall of resistance, a greater Intifada resurrection, of
persistence ~ merciful, peaceful, and sincere assistance on
behalf of every Palestinian woman, boy, girl, and man ~ and we
can, if we will but recognize as an entire WORLD view, what is
right, what is tight, what is just, and what is true, but you
can forget about the support of most evangelical Christians,
because they act as though they’ve never heard of you, let alone
~ loving you?!
IV.
MINE is an end time, apocalyptic
call ~ to brothers who love righteousness ALL ~
over Palestine, Africa, and Holy
Mecca ~ in Medina, London, and France ~ in Belgium, in India,
Canada, and in the Americas North and South;
my Rastafarian brothers who love
righteousness in The West Indies,
my brothers who love
righteousness in Saint Martin, Saint Croix, and Martinique,
my brothers who love
righteousness in Barbados and Spain,
my brothers who love
righteousness in Scotland, Great Britain, and the South of
Wales,
all my brothers who love
righteousness in the North - in Russia, Poland, and Afghanistan,
all my brothers who love
righteousness in Iran, Syria, Libya, Egypt, Turkey, and Karbala,
all brothers who love
righteousness in Sultan Bahu’s Pakistan,
all my brothers who love
righteousness in Saint Jilan’s once, emerald City of Baghdad,
my brothers who love
righteousness throughout the entire Sudan,
my brothers who love
righteousness in The South - called Malaysia, Thailand, and
Vietnam,
my brothers who love
righteousness in communist China and Japan,
my brothers who love
righteousness in Saint Touba’s Holy land,
all my brothers who love
righteousness in The Gambia and in Senegal,
all my brothers who love
righteousness in Nigeria, and Shaka Zulu’s Swaziland,
all my brothers who love
righteousness in Switzerland and in the Mountains of Tibet,
all my brothers who love
righteousness here, throughout the rest of the EARTH, and
THIS ENTIRE MULTIVERSE!
my brothers throughout the world,
who hate injustice and unrighteousness in the great land of
Palestine,
will all flank my perimeters,
whose base is wide,
whose height is infinite,
whose CapStone is ~
MOST RIGHT GLORY-JUST!
but it will be too late,
because no appointment or date,
had been made or set,
to say good-byes before i left.
the station and estate will have
changed by then,
and i will be flying further
east,
apart from them, never, ever to
return...
but i was there when they most
needed me,
wrapped in purple, green, and
gold mantles, of faith,
and sincerity, and yet i dreamed
of no foreboding Martyrdom,
and i did not beat the drums of
Lebanon, BUT I DID drink water at Aynou Rahmati’s
Well of Mercy, where Simba lives,
and Mammadou gives, a children’s song unselfishly, where the
Angel’s visit i did receive, in wonder, awe, and sanctity, or
Saint Jilan adopting me as his beloved son out of graciousness
and courtesy, or Saint Touba’s self made shoes, i did with haste
and not misuse ~ hold, lick, and taste, in the Majestic House of
Darr-ul-Quddus,or at Serigne Saliou’s feet, a gift to me - i did
advance ~ the miraculous mystic alchemedic sub-stance, or smiled
at, laughed with, and Ziarra’ed ~ by Serigne Afia when he called
me M’Backe and made me benediction of Shaikh - i did but
tremble, and should not break, or take ~ except to now dance,
and romance, in exalted tranced ecstasy,
on behalf of my brothers being
set completely free, to return and rebuild their homes in
Palestine finally, without bulldozers or armored tanks, or gun
shots fired or heard ever again on the Western Bank!
V.
Yes, i will die in Jerusalem
city,
not unbecoming, but a becoming ~
willingly;
on a street paved in pure gold,
among the young, the destitute,
and the old, who still have
passion for ALLAH’s COME passion;
who have been mercified by The
Mercifier of ALL,
i will die in the City of
Jerusalem, ~
Pouring ~ THROWING!! buckets of
my brother’s blood, sweat, and tears, upon The Wailing Wall,
standing and smiling in front of The Dome of The Rock, for the
whole world will recognize IAM the ticking clock,
with Nuclear Light Rays passing
through and from me,
bursting and spreading forth
everywhere endlessly,
leaving my image indelibly etched
like a photo negative,
my life image positively
reversed,
anthologized for all time,
on the window pains of my
Palestinian brother’s street vending shops, that had been
bombed, toppled over, disarranged, and flattened to the
ground,as well as on the widows of houses in Ramalah, Samaria,
Qumran, Janin, and elsewhere, like, in the thought and hearts of
men forever,
throughout the Nations, and on
TeleVision Stations,
like CNN, NBC, ABC, and,
Al-Jazeera,
who witnessed by satellite
coverage, my flash, and my dash,
infinitely long, and secured by
the promise of Him
who made all mankind to be in
love and free,
without hate, without distasteful
bitterness, of corrupted bile,
of a River Nile, rapidly running
through the veins of diseased hearts, it’s flowing waters turned
red with the blood of death, hypocrisy, and destruction, because
they would not conform, or reform, to the commands of the Divine
decree ~
to see that all men be made
free!!
VI.
The Poet’s Holy Lamenting Cry!
a litany of Holiness in demise of
the unjust, the evil, and the unwise,
a litany of Holiness in song and
deliverance for those who cannot sing,
a litany of Holiness in prayer
only the wretched of the earth can know and bring
a litany of Holiness against all
that is unHoliness i bleed,
a litany of Holiness for the Holy
of Holiness that all mankind
deeply doth need,
a litany of Holiness the poet
shouts to the Holy mountains, the Holy heavens, the Holy earth,
and its Holy seas,
a litany of Holiness resounding,
abounding, astounding echo penetrating all Holy deaf ears,
a litany of Holiness in grief to
waves of spectromatic unbelief on behalf of a billion Holy
weeping tears,
a litany of Holiness for the
praise of Holiness to come for a thousand Holy of Holy years
Holy! Holy! Holy! against all
that is unHoly!
Holy! Holy! Holy! against the
purity that is impurity and unHoly!
Holy! Holy! Holy! against the
denial of the Holy!
Holy! Holy! Holy! for the
yearning of the Holy!
Holy! Holy! Holy! for the return
of the Holy!
Holy! Holy! Holy! for those who
live to make unHoly clean and Holy!
Holy! Holy! Holy! for those who
die to bring presence of the Holy!
Holy! Holy! Holy! for the
unafraid to declare and become the just and the Holy!
Holy! Holy! Holy! for all that is
perfect and righteously everlastingly Holy!
Holy! Holy! Holy! for to be all
Men, Jinn, and Angels more Holy of - THE HOLY!
HOLY! HOLY! HOLY!
LORD GOD ALMIGHTY!
THE EARTH IS FULL OF HOLY-NESS ~
IN HOLY MOST GLORY-US!
VII.
Here in the Jerusalem, the City
of Peace, i die;
i die when the Sun is once again
in Sagittarius,
and the Moon is eclipsed in the
sign of Pisces,
while finding release, and
relief, of affectatious
reflections, in the eyes of my
brothers souls,
as theirs meet mine for comfort
and consolation,
thousands of them, now, waiting
for relief, across the seas,
to give me their Salams, and
other greetings of Peace.
Yes, i will gladly die in the
City of Jerusalem,
and because of King Solomon’s,
Alaihi-Salam, rewarding
Song of Songs,
IAM the song of luminous martyred
choirs singing on the
Western Bank, a Holy, Sweet Honey
In The Rock, Acapella
OF,
God is not through with me yet!
because all musical instruments
have been destroyed
and set on fire there, schools
blown apart and pulverized into
an aggravated and intensified
Cloud of Unknowing there, and
all school children’s books have
been burned to a crisp there,
on heaps, too steep to climb, to
put out the flames there,
and save them while they were
still clasped tight in
the little children’s hands
there, before they cried, and died
in pain there, children and adult
teachers who had been raped there, and murdered on their land a
million times by the millions there, where a zillion tears have
been shed there,
under a cloudy sky near Megiddo,
or the city of Herodium,
or Bethel, or Hebron,
when a nightmare of hell broke
loose upon my brothers,
when i died in the Holy City of
Jerusalem,
my face turned toward,
the Resplendent Light!
~ THE Mystic Poet SIAM
(C) 11.22.03
TO MY MASTER SHAMIR
My holy master, the revised poem
is beneath this that could be used to present it all anew, but
you are my master, and IAM your mystic poet, a luminous SUN of
YOU! ~ therefore (eye) trust with complete confidence in knowing
you will present it to the entire world once more to the best of
your genetic creative abilities!
Love ~
SIAM
AFRICAN-AMERICAN HOLY MAN
ENCOURAGES BLACK STUDENTS TO NON-VIOLENT PROTEST ISRAELI
MASSACRE OF PALESTINIANS IN GAZA WAR
SIAM Foretold Current Events in
Gaza through A Poem Written Six Years Ago
(Indianapolis, IN, January 12,
2009) ¨C African-American poet and M'Backe Shaikh, SIAM,
encourages Black students around the country to walk
hand-in-hand in non-violent protest of the U.S. support to
Israel in the Gaza War. SIAM shares views with other notable
American political leaders and journalists such as Cynthia
McKinney, former U.S. House Representative and 2008 Presidential
Candidate, and Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist,
who are set to speak at an emergency town hall meeting in New
York City this week. The first African-American M'Backe Shaikh
in the history of Mourdism, SIAM foretold the current events in
Gaza six years ago through the poem, "In Jerusalem," which he
was inspired to write during a non-stop 72-hour period. "I could
not sleep or eat and my family had to raise the windows in the
room the poem was coming to me in because of the intense heat
coming off of my body," states SIAM, a Harvard Divinity School
graduate.
"In my poem I described things
that were yet to come and are just now breaking forth at the
level I described over six years ago," SIAM adds. After the poem
was first published on political activist Israel Shamir's
website, SIAM says he was attacked by his contemporaries for
dealing with issues foreign to the African-American situation in
America. However, SIAM describes his poetic experience with "In
Jerusalem" as the poem writing him, rather than him writing the
poem. The vision from six years ago is now unfolding and he
urges Black students nationwide to assist Cynthia McKinney on a
grassroots level to pass out flyers, send emails, make phone
calls and visits to local and state politicians, and write
letters to stop the Israeli killings of millions of innocent
Palestinians.
A recently emailed flyer from
Revolution Books in New York City states, "The 1.5 million
people of Gaza - fenced in on all sides - are being subjected to
a brutal military assault from land and air. Civilian casualties
are in the thousands. Food, medicine, and fuel are blockaded." A
prophetic line from "In Jerusalem" states:
"entire families with the young,
elderly, and invalid,
literally burned and buried alive
beneath the weight of overturned rubble
in brick and mortar - crying,
hurting, needing, bleeding, dying,
an atrocity multiplied to the
trillionth monstrosity,
a scientific equation of
devastation that even Albert Einstein
or Dr. Frankenstein could not,
and would not speculate to calculate¡"
SIAM reminds Black college
students across America about how historically they were
instrumental in protesting during the Civil Rights Movement
using non-violent protest such as sit-ins and marching. Today,
the political climate has changed, and cyberspace is the "new
sit-in" for Black college students who wish to become involved
in a new political movement. "Students must use their voice and
stand up for what is right, regardless of where the injustice
occurs. If we allow the U.S. to support this crime against
humanity by saying or doing nothing, then we are inviting a
similar atrocity to occur on U.S. soil without International
support or protest," says Rachel Armour, HBCU graduate and
national award-winning educator. "Take heed to SIAM's words, for
I know he walks in the footsteps of great prophets sent from God
to warn us about the ongoing holy war and ethnic cleansing in
Palestine," she adds.
-MORE~
AFRICAN-AMERICAN HOLY MAN
ENCOURAGES BLACK STUDENTS TO NON-VIOLENT PROTEST¡Page 2
For more information about how to
help or to attend the Gaza Town Hall Meeting in New York City,
call Revolutionary Books at 917-548-4853 To read "In Jerusalem"
and other poems by the great Mystic Poet SIAM, visit below and
travel to www.rainofgrace.com.
About Rain of Grace, New and
Selected Poems by SIAM
Published in 2007, Rain of Grace,
New and Selected Poems by SIAM is a masterfully constructed book
of psycho-spiritual poems that may make you laugh; make you cry,
but you surely will not be bored - a profoundly unique creative
literary experience, chronicling the last thirty years of a
great Mystic's journey towards spiritual purification,
illumination, resurrection, and ascension. More than just a
typical book of poetry, it is an extraordinary transformative
symphonic poetical encounter.
About Shaikh "SIAM" M'Backe
SIAM, after completing his
studies at Aenon Bible College, and Ohio State University, went
on to complete his Master of Theological Studies degree from the
Harvard Divinity School in 1976. This Mystic Poet is known both
for his poetry as well as his work in theater.
SIAM has appeared, read, and
performed his art, taking his energy and light to institutions
across the nation and abroad. Such notable places include, but
are not exclusive to Ohio University; Central State University,
Xenia, OH; Wilberforce University; Chillicothe Correctional
Institute; The Columbus Stage Center, (Ohio); Wexner Mershon
Auditorium at Ohio State University; the Karamu Theatre; The
Human Race Theatre; The Chapel and The Braun Room of The Harvard
Divinity School; The Apollo Theatre; The Brooklyn Academy of
Music; the Kenya Science Teachers' College, Nairobi; Aynou
Rahmati in the Holy City of Touba, Senegal, West Africa; and
inside the Kings Chamber of The Great Pyramid of Cairo, Egypt.
He has also read his work and performed on the stages of The
Warren Performing Arts Center, The Phoenix Theatre, The Madame
Walker Urban Life Center, Marion County Public Library Atrium,
Arts in The Garden, Write On The Poetry Spot, Midtown Arts &
Coffe Lounge, The Indianapolis Civic Theatre, and the Indiana
Repertory Theatre.
His art and writings have
appeared in magazines and periodicals such as Our Choking Times,
Kuwas, The Escutcheon, The Midtown Writer, NUVO, Ain't No Frost
On This Pumpkin ¨C New Hoosier Poets, Vibration, Proud Black
Images (the OSU quarterly publication of poems, essays, and
photography which he formerly co-founded and co-edited), and The
Flying Island. His poetry has also appeared in the provocative
intercontinental Best-Seller, Galilee Flowers, The Collected
Essays of Israel Shamir.
SIAM's work has also been read on
television stations in various cities; and, articles about him
as an actor and poet have been published in newspapers such as,
The Columbus Call & Post, The Columbus Dispatch, and The Dayton
Daily News, all in Ohio; The Harvard Crimson, The Indianapolis
Star & News, and The Indianapolis Recorder.
Most recently, SIAM's poetry has
appeared on the Internet at distinguished websites such as
http://www.williambowles.info/guests/siam.html and
http://www.israelshamir.net/friends/index.shtml and as a judge
in the First Annual Indiana Black Expo Poetry Slam.
SIAM was the second
African-American in Indiana history to be a recipient of a
$5,000 Fellowship from the Indiana Arts Commission for his work
in theater. He also received standing ovations and accolades on
behalf of his poetry from notable poets such as Norman Jordan,
Delbert Tibbs, Ethridge Knight, Eugene B. Redmond, and Imamu
Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones). He has often been asked what SIAM
means? The poet responds by saying:
SIAM is like unto IAM the
continuous eternal verb to be;
it is the ever new me of being
and becoming endlessly evolving
into new and more beautiful
construction and art forms. SIAM
is not only that new creative
name for my talent and the place
it comes from. SIAM also stands
for my spiritual and
human station in life (my
mission). SIAM is...
Shaikh Ibrahim Al-Jahizz M'Backe
ALL who bless this page with
their divine presence ~ Please Go "like"my new author's page @
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rain-of-Grace-New-Selected-Poems-by-SIAM/391947264153529
For those who wish to traverse
the Stations (Maqams)
of my Mystic Light, please fold
space to enter
the emanations (9th carom) of
Rain of Grace @ www.rainofgrace.com
And those that wish to have an
extarordinary poetical encounter can purchase my book directly
by traveling to
www.createspace.com/3238789
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