The Flower Swordsman

Author's name: Mohamed Al-Maghout Publisher: Dar Al-Mada for Publishing and Distribution Year of publication: 2001 Literary classification: Poetry and Drama Book overview: "Hurry up, my beloved, hurry up, two lovers afraid, two lovers unarmed except by the night and sighs, they are the sword and shield of revolutions. I call you, my beloved, and my fingers hover from idea to idea, from page to page. Do not believe that you can smell corpses and not see them. My death is near, hanging from a branch above my head, so be the last heroic flowers, for I am the last orchard of poetry in this world, and I have no fence. I am a distant star in the long night of the poor. A distant rock on the road must be extinguished, at any peak where the climbers stumble and circle around it. The bellies must disappear, for the era of scratches and small obstacles has passed. But I am confused between the pain of falling and the shame of rescue, afraid of dying alone in one of the dark rooms of seduction, and that my body is discovered only by the smell and the breaths of passersby. My days are numbered, and my hours of love are decreasing like supplies during a siege. It is said that the heads of those sentenced to death in wild revolutions, even after their limbs are cut and they are rolled toward the feet of the crowds, still retain for moments the expressions of terror, hope, and disappointment. We continue to beg those around us with looks of astonishment, reproach, and questioning. This is how I look at your ropes and your depths, at your land and sky, oh my homeland." When love for the homeland fills the heart, speech becomes sweeter, and when its image dwells in the eyes, the scene becomes more beautiful. Here is Mohamed Al-Maghout in his texts, a swordsman of flowers, as if he carries words like a sword, in his duels in the homeland's arena.