Two Poems by Taghrid Bou Merhi

Mazes!

He didn't leave a maze

without treading it

He would collapse exhausted

into the faces of worn-out bags!!!

He searches for land leaning on the pedestals of the noble city!!

Amidst departure, he devoured the body of sin and delved into longing..!

And since then, tears have not stopped on the cheeks of the sad owner..!

Mothers nailed to the wall of wishes pointed their fingers into the void of places..

They resemble thoughts when they glide in Mozart's music

and inhabit the dreams' breeze..!

Was this a delirium, the audacity of mazes..!?

Perhaps the alphabet will change the essence of the universe..!!

Perhaps it will donate in writing the psalms of love in the sight of creation

and the successive strikes of suppressed desires!!

No language for me!

Bury me the last scream in the coat of waiting

Remove my hand from the wrist of defiance

and grant my mouth a kiss of victory..!

© TAGHRID BOU MERHI

LEBANON/ BRAZIL

IN THE MIDST OF EMPTINESS!!

There is no one around but me..

I move in a silence broken only by the tapping of a beak

Penetrating into my being in a way that time has forgotten..

I try to borrow the noise of its beats from the scenic moment of Beethoven's symphony

Without caring about the dissonance of "imaginary perfection"

In the subtle details of the thread of patience.

Memory twists time with a tragic fantasy imagination

It diminishes the deputies

Far from the deceptive corridors of decay..

When life freezes..

Let your faded convictions in a needle hole

And promise yourself back to the spontaneous moment when you could never admit love, even to yourself..!!

This love of symbolic dimensions

Left behind a lexicon of suffering

Like a taut thread in the midst of complete emptiness..!!

Just like life itself..!!

© TAGHRID BOU MERHI

LEBANON/ BRAZIL

Taghrid Bou Merhi, a Lebanese multilingual poet, writer, journalist and translator living in Brasil. She has authored 18 books and three encyclopedias, a translator of 23 books to date, an author of 56 articles, a presenter of 18 books (10 Arabic books and 8 internacional books), and she participated in more than 60 Arabic books and more than 75 anthology internacional. She is an active member of various literary and creative platforms and editor of 10 Magazine Arabic. She is an advisory member among ten internacional poetry consultants chosen by Chinese media giant CCTV. She is advisor to the International Union of Arab Intellectuals, in the Media Authority for Translation Affairs and advisor to the countries Al-Sham literary platform for literary translation. She is internacional embassador for the organization of creativity for peace London. She teaches Arabic to non-speakers, holds a degree in law.

She has received numerous international awards, including the Nizar Sartawi International Creativity Award in 2021, Naji Numan Award in literature in 2023, and the SahityaPata Kazi Nazrul Islam Memorial Award in 2022. Taghrid has been honored for her journalistic excellence and has won primer place prize such as the "Zheng Nian Cup" 2023. International Peace Medal Award, Peace Award, certificate for Hyperpoem Book (a poetry book publishing 2000 poets), and an honorary prize from the Global Poetic Brotherhood in Texas, USA, for translating global poetry into Arabic, French, and Italian. Taghrid has been honored with the International Poet Zhen Xin Award for 2022 and 2023, and was honored with the "World Leaders Award" among 140 global personalities by WORLD GALA, and SAHITO INTERNACIONAL AWARD FOR LITERATURE "WINNERS OF JURY AWARD FOR LITERATURE 2023". She received the Journalistic Excellence Shield from the Nile and Euphrates Paper Magazine in 2022 and 2023. Taghrid has also been recognized with honorary certificates as a journalist from Mubadara Magazine, Mirror of International Life Agency, and Innovators Magazine. Her writings are part of several national and international magazines, newspapers, journals and anthologies. Her poems have been translated into 47 languages, studied by literary critics, and featured on international radio stations.. She speaks five languages.