BIO
Jeanne d’Ark Souhaid is a Lebanese poet and writer, who has worked as journalist for more than 20 years. She is the founder and president of Ibnat Alarz literary salon, the founder of the Lebanese-Arab Cultural Festival, and the chairperson of Ibnat Alarz Committee for Free Reading In Lebanon. She has received a number of awards, including honorary doctorate degree from Mawaheb International Cultural Union, International Mothers Day Award from The Intellectual and Cultural Association for Creativity in Paris and Baaklin National Library shield. She has published five poetry books: The Dawn, A Lover in the Temple of Cedars, In the Bosom of the Night, “Where are they?” The Scream of a Homeland, Her Passion and Love – The Color of Burgundy Color.
The Breeze Of The Soul
We might not meet as lovers
It does not bother me
Spread your wings in my sky
A chirping bird
Pouring my soul out of your own soul,
For whom the morning star bows
A breeze that courts the clouds
Sending them showers of rain
On these hills
Be
for me a sail…
That hurls my madness into the sea
That bears me where the sun
Radiates from the lighthouse of your heart,
Lighting up from and into eternity
The magnificent night of love
At the ports of sunset
Be
a moment of revelation
Redolent of incense, the soul’s
Tremors have been shaken by miraculous love
Be the one to knock
And joy will write the story of the beginning
Be
A pillow of whispers
Orbiting my tent, O “Qais”
Your feet have never stepped inside my chamber
Your arms have never been around my waist
Nor has my head been lured by your breast so close
It does not bother me
The rise of your face is my morning
flowing gently towards the virgin’s chamber
Veiling the silence of shyness
The transparent horizon smiles around us
“We are two souls dwelling in one body
Please…
Hug me O heaven
Adorn my heart with a necklace of stars
A nymph I become, flying on the carpet of love
Not the shadow of a female among women
Be
The mouth of a dawn
That we kiss together, a spiritual apparition
To the choirs of angles’ melodies
Let’s wander with the breeze
O divine joy
Do not write the story of the denouement.
.
Epigrams
I
I will never go back where the seeds of anemones are cast…
over the desert of the hearts…
I will create fertile plains…
where my roses may live…
where hope may live…
where the bells of temples toll, free joy…
and minarets chant…
for the proud neighing of alphabets…
II
I will keep you as a dream
Keep me as… a rebellion
that inflames the universe…
with love, peace and honesty…
that intoxicates me…
releases me
towards the endless horizon
There lies the freedom I love
not an orbit … that imprisons me.
III
Who has pulled joy out of the heart’s eyes?
Who has curbed with darkness the rush of love?
Who has colored the mirrors with lies of love?
I grief for you, O World …
You’ll never know the peace of heart
I’ll keep my promise and quench your thirst from springs that never go dry
Perhaps Heaven will answer the fountains of truth…
IV
Love is like a thunderbolt
We have no choice
of time… or age… or whom we love …
We raise our hands begging Heaven
that it may fall in fertile land
to fuse therein the sap of life.
V
Your silence portends a storm
My calm nostalgia
awaits a hurricane
VI
You are the voice of nostalgia
joining the moon in its seclusion on my balcony
I seek your inspiration for the memory an incomplete poem
a descending revelation resembling the crystal of silent eyes
that I paint as a love story with no beginning
… nor end…
VII
O Destiny, you paint me a runaway spirit… a galaxy of light
a little girl lying
crucified on the head crown of poesy
chanting the charm of the sigh… the bitterness of the distant dream…
the phantom of hope… the revelations of a Christmas tree
… and the call for a new resurrection
VIII
I am the one who…
adores the festival in your eyes
embraces ether….
in ecstasy
fueling the perplexity of the universe
… in its endless search… for you
O, my joys all.
IX
I came to you..
lifting mounts of love..
for which I couldn’t find a port on earth
X
Whenever I desire to be free, your eyes entice me
to
explore
other galaxies … that kindle the universe…
so that the festival in our orbit may never come to an end.
XI
Your presence keeps the lamp of hope … aflame
igniting my universe
XII
The night I cried for your departure I did not know
you were only going
to collect roses of love for me
from the gardens of joy
*****
