What Is It, To Be a Hero? What Is It, To Be a Legend?

What is it, to be a hero? What is it, to be a legend? Look in the mirror and you’ll know. Look into your own eyes and tell me you are not heroic, tell me you are not legendary! Tell me you haven’t endured, or suffered, or lost the things you care about most. And yet, here you are, a survivor, you live, you breathe; you walk, talk and work. We’re all survivors, some more than others, but none of us alone. We all have our stories to tell, we’re all legends!

Some have been bestowed with the gift to inspire, the power to motivate, to push others forward to live another day; putting a smile on a face and provoking thought with a brilliant design, an inspiring quote, a divine piece of music that moves you to the core.

We’re all here to make a difference, to push boundaries, to give flavor to a tasteless rough life. Rich or poor, young or old, you’re here for a reason. Cause a hero is not someone who lives above us watching over us, a hero is not a god; a hero lives here on the streets among us, always here but rarely recognized.

Look in the mirror and see yourself for what you truly are. We’re all heroes! Yes, we are legends!

{Inspired by my dear friend, Samer Safir}

I Owe You Love

I owe you love, but I’m worn-out and beat
My tears locked inside, yearning for release
Release is what they find as my heart breaks
For my future is, beyond doubt, at the stakes
Of being solo, of living without you
My one and only, my true soul mate

I see you everywhere, I feel you everyday
Lost within me, surrounding me
I’ve never felt a greater pain
As a knife cuts through me
Through my every artery, my every vein

You spoke out when you should not have
I wish I never knew now
What I never knew then
I wish I was kept in check
But instead, I went back to black

We only said goodbye with words
Then I died a hundred times
Yet, I wonder what might have been
If only we stood a chance,
If only we could have been

A mere glimpse of you brightens my day
Even, temporarily, fades my pain to stray
Darkened by parting and longing for the away
Distances covered, bereavement entailed
For I cannot have you anyway
You were never mine in the first place

My suffering, only you can alleviate
Yet, even in my want and selfishness
That weight, my conscience cannot bear
To make another suffer for my fair
Away from this path, my every desire
And my poor heart, have to deviate

Your memory lingers eternally
And ever so strongly
Love is what I’ve tasted
A taste of heaven, a taste of ecstasy
That I never thought would exist
Except in dreams and fairytales

A picture so beautiful
That a lens would shy away
So tangible is what it was
But not long enough to stay
To give my life meaning
And give it an array of times so altered
Happiness so tortured by another’s present state

My first vision when I wake
My last wandering thought before I sleep
It only hurts with every breath I take
Never thought my fall was so so deep

I saw the world through your eye
My void was filled by your side
Never knew that I could experience such bliss
Although I’ve never held you or even gotten a kiss

Yet, you’ve kissed away all my pain
Showed me that sorrow is in vain
Taught me that my strength remains
Through better or worse, keeping me sane

You were my twilight
You were my delight and only flight
Without you, I have been burning love
Love so heated, that turned to firelight
But now you’ve turned into my plight
That I cannot, with all I got left, fight

You were my sole soul sanctuary
Until I wrote my own obituary
Until I lost my sanity, momentary
Trying to reclaim it, barely temporary

Without you, what I am is incomplete
To my heart’s chambers, no other can compete
Dormant within them I’ll remain
Until I turn to stone or sail away

My heart aches with sorrow
Fallen into an abyss with no tomorrow
For you’ve always belonged to another,
You never really belonged with me
Yet, by your side is where I’d want to be
But that is not written in heaven for me

All alone, misery I have to endure
Wrecked to pieces, not just bruised
A healing of my heart is not foreseen
For, this way, I had never felt before
An utter completion of my whole state of being
That never have I thought existed except in poetry

A love so epic, so grand
Incapable, is what I am
Of letting go, in the dangerous hope
That maybe one day, we will actually be
For now, my one and only comfort is my solitude
No matter what, no other could ever take your place

Now, wounded on the battlefield, without you, I lay
A struggle, renewed, is my every single day
A coma is my sleep, the best part of my stay ,
My place of escape, where I take a break
From the entire world and the strangers’ gaze,
On this earth, until I depart or fall astray

Of the Curious Case of Time

[This poem is inspired by the movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button]

I wonder if I can turn back time

To the day when I was young

And rewind the tape of my life

To dear memories imprinted deep

Of times full of hopes and dreams
To innocent childhood swept away

A conscious voice awakes
Freedom is all it seeks
From the binds of the keep
Of the time and its gate
And the keeper in a spate
Keeping the travelers abate

Understanding life is a journey
Undertaken by the brave
Seized by a sensible crave
For the unusual and the grave
Before it is too late
And one comes of age

Age so old turns into a heavy burden
Too hefty to carry on one's shoulders
A backward clock becomes a fantasy
In a world filled with loads of agony
Wishful thinking becomes a felony
Redeemed by regrets and senility

A realization renewed manifests
That present is a precious gift
Of times not taken for granted
If only there was no tomorrow
One other day, God only knows
On this earth, cannot be guaranteed

Now a new resolution beckons
Into each and every second I dive
And for shinier tomorrow I strive
Yes, life will forever be a mystery
That must be lived forwards
Only to be understood backwards

To the Cemetery Underneath

Death and all his friends
Creep up from all ends
Of the cemetery underneath
My lone dwelling sheath

Under my window
Lies a singled widow
Weeping for the loss
Of her beloved sons

Death doth indeed forsake
The dearest to heart in ache
With no more than a memory
Of an eternal tragedy

A reminder of mortality
An upholder of morality
That died within mankind
No longer a precious find

The demise of a soul
Puts on a grand toll
To the bereaved and relieved
Humanity devoid of conceit

Humbled by the departure
Of a loved one in torture
By a mortal of a creature
Whose undying feature
Is a face full of lies
And severance of ties

Death and all his friends
Creep up from all ends
Of the cemetery underneath
My lone dwelling sheath
Knocking on my door
Now and forever more