A stonemosque Stands like a pencil Taller than Eucalyptus trees In our village's center.
The minaret sings Into the ears Of the Sky 'til people answer.
We bare our feet and Line in prayer.
We ask that you erase All wars
Erase!!
We ask that you erase All fears
Erase!!
Foreheads resting On the ground --
Our daily paper
We write and repeat:
Peace Be Upon All People!
* * * * *
A Memoir of PENCIL poem:
I did the Islamic call for prayer in Arabic to accompany Pencil on the audio and video. I wanted my non-Muslim audiences to get a sense of the prayer, which people in Muslim countries hear five times each day.
When I recorded the call, with my friend Trina, who assisted in the production of the audio, I realized that I have not heard the call for prayer in a woman's voice ever!! It's not customary for a woman to do the call. And my performing the call to accompany this poem was the first time I heard it in a woman's voice.
I think the voices of women must become central to the world's conversation. Women can bring more kindness, gentleness, nuance, caring, love and flexibility to the world scene. We can bring wisdom of half of the world's population that has been quiet for a long time.
Because women belong in all nations, all faiths, races, ages etc. and have experienced all notions, women as a group can make this world more respectful to all of its peoples.
I think it's necessary that all of us raise our voices with our messages that this is OUR world and it deserves to be protected and loved rather than destroyed. One message that must be heard also is about Islam as the third message in the Judio-Christian-Islamic tradition. To drop Islam from this tradition has been causing so much misunderstanding.
Islam is very similar in many ways to Judaism and Christianity. Anything that Islam can be praised for is also present in Judaism and Christianity. Anything that Islam can be blamed for, can be found in the older sibling books. And the word Allah, the name of God that Muslims use, is also used by Arab Christians. A variation of the word Allah is also used by Jews. So Allah means God in the One God traditions.
The first appearance of Pencil poem was on one of my favorite poetry sites, Universeofpoetry.org
