Zayneb Khan

As I walk through the waters..

2010-08-05T04:54:00.004+01:00

As I walk through the waters
I don't look back at what is left behind

As I push against adversity
I keep my head up to survive

As I walk away from my dreams
I walk stronger towards reality

As I take your strange hand
I am now part of a stronger family

Zayneb Khan, 5th August 2010.

..was created to sin perfectly

2010-06-20T16:12:00.032+01:00

..was created to sin
perfectly;
feeling inadequate
incomplete.
Seeking a source
to accept me.

..was created to sin
perfectly;
facing my flawed
reflection,
Your Praise flows
sincerely.

Zayneb Khan, 20th June 2010.

Image; Stone stairs to top of natural bridge by kowboy83 photobucket.

Eternity

2010-04-25T23:03:00.016+01:00

I will enter into your thoughts and remind
I will surround your fantasies and confine
I will be there when you ignore
I will be the music of your score.

I remember even when you choose to forget
I await when you remain in regret
I am Near when you walk away
I embrace when you wonder astray.

I am All and Enough for eternity
Left my signature in all you discover to lead you to Me
My Light destroys the root of misery
Close My eyes and breathe easily.

How sweet is my Remembrance?
I surrounded and lifted your essence
Breathe reality choosing Me
Cherish this moment; infinity.

As I take you
Where you belong
Shower you with love;
Its been so long.

I missed you more
My Patience is Great
Each breath is a choice
Now choose your fate.

Zayneb Khan, 23rd April 2010.

My Gifts

2010-04-07T22:19:00.007+01:00

My gifts are not for you
To keep and hide
My gifts light a path to me;
The One worthy of Pride.

My gifts are not to be left
Unattended, gathering dust
My gifts are to be nurtured
With complete devotion and trust.

Without my gifts
How can you lead?
Lead those who are
Searching for Me?

I am your gift
When you paint the sky and draw
I am your inspiration
When your words are true and raw

Share my gifts
To acknowledge
Your gratefulness
Colour my sky
With your creativeness

Zayneb Khan, October 2008

Freedom

2010-03-20T17:52:00.005Z

My essence pierces all bounds
Dances free from creation

The flame of my love surrounds
The cancer of self-condemnation

Zayneb Khan, 20th March 2010

We are all Rachel Corrie

2010-03-15T10:10:00.009Z

How many seeds of hope dear Rachel Corrie

Did you breathe into eternity?

Before you chose your last breathe to

Kill the justification of our common enemy

Zayneb Khan, 16th March 2010.

Rachel Corrie, rest in peace (April 10, 1979 – March 16, 2003)

'My dream is to stop hunger by the year 2000.....my dream can and will come true if we all look into the future and see the light that shines there.'

Taken from Rachel Corries 5th grade speech.

image copyright; WhatsOnStage http://www.whatsonstage.com/blogs/offwestend/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/mynameisrachelcorrie_feb09.jpg

Wall of Hate

2010-03-08T17:44:00.010Z

You folded my wings and enclosed my vision

My sky is overshadowed by the wall of your prison

I have no dignity, no freedom to speak of my pain

My tears are not seen, my cries echo in vain

I have no voice

Where is my choice?

My water is flowing away from me

My well of hope sinks deeper within me

My body is sliced day by day

I am fed to those who wait for their prey

I live each moment watching death slowly encompass me

Death lives in my flesh, bones and breathes deep inside me

My fruits are uprooted and left to perish

My seeds have no water; my legacy leaving no wish

I hold my key and look with hope towards you

But there is a wall of mistrust being nurtured deep within you

Poem written after watching 'The Wall of Hate' documentary, 11th November 2008.

Photograph copyright of Palestian blogger & photographer Ahmad Mesleh

Will you be My Tree?

2010-02-27T19:51:00.004Z

Will you be My tree?
Can you bear the breeze?

If you’re sincere
Your roots will grow deep
If you’re humble
Many fruits you will reap

You will be the shelter
And bear the heat and cold
You will provide and furnish
For My sake bought and sold

Your branches will breathe life
Into the hearts of man awakening veins
Your fruits will be taken
Some lost; through worldly gains

Very few will inhale
The Purity
The aroma of
My Sanctity

You can only bear the storm
If you sway in rhyme
You will only be My tree
If you sacrificed
All that is truly mine.

Zayneb Khan, Chateau Chinon – France, 31st January 2008.

RevoluShone

2010-02-02T23:54:00.005Z

You became the man you wanted to be,

You accepted the fate of those who value justice over glory.

Your tears became pain that raged a storm,

No one expected resided in you, me and we.

I am the power,

The change that needs to be.

I accept all sacrifices, lies and deceit,

From those I take power from label me.

My ripple will reach,

Where you dare not challenge or question.

Even after I am gone,

My words will be spoken.

Zayneb Khan, April 2009,
Poem dedicated to revolutionaries.

Bubble

2009-11-08T22:16:00.006Z

How gentle I have been with you from the start

Your beginning carefully bubble wrapped

A single cell full of wonder

Emerging into a brainless loving heart

With each stage your looking to me

For more gentleness

Your design holds the keys

To appreciate my Greatness

I breathed more love into your soul

Than the milky way and all your universe

Your circulatory system is enough

To map the circumference of this earth

Your eyes are more beloved to me

Than every star that lost its sight

Your emptiness will lead you

Towards my Infinite Light

Zayneb Khan, 7th November 2009.

Canvas

2009-11-05T18:27:00.012Z

Everyday is a canvas

I can paint it as colourful and rich as my dreams

Or choose to withhold, not touch

Trust or believe.

If its to be then, its my choice to begin

Begin living the dream

Drinking its sweetness

Leaving defeat and choosing to win

'Believe in yourself!!!!'

How easy to say, but hard to see through

When your ghosts & excess baggage

Keep you anchored and distracted from whats true

The truth that those that hurt you

Have no 'real' inner power over you

Release the past, embrace your purpose

Whats next...Who is really stopping you?

Zayneb Khan, 5th November 2009.

Photograph: Foxglove 2009, copyright Zayneb Khan

DNA

2009-07-11T22:25:00.024+01:00

A DNA test is all thats left

A trace of my beloved
Taken out of a test tube
Wrapped in an empty nest.

I asked my colleague
Whats the reason?
Ethnic cleansing, he replied
I asked but why?
Ethnic cleansing, he replied.

I am left in silence
You were Muslim
That's why you

Deserved to die?

Under the skies of democracy
Die in humiliation
Burn openly; your Muslim
No need for justification.

My lines seem so extreme
But I asked my colleague
Whats the reason, why?
Ethnic cleansing, he replied
I am left in silence
But not satisfied.

I read my lines
They seem so raw
Bitter, but true
So now your reading
So I'm asking you
Whats the reason?
Its important to me
Because I am Muslim too.

Do I deserve to be killed
Democratically raped, humiliated
Does my brother deserve
To die naked, castrated?

This happened in Europe
There was no evil axes of democracy
This happened to us
How long do we smell the stench of hypocrisy?

I have a photo
I have a memory; your smile
But its not the same
Democracy; I can't look at you in the eye.

Zayneb Khan, 11th July 2009. Poem written on the 14th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, Europe.

Black and White

2009-05-19T16:03:00.007+01:00

photograph: Sajida Amer with her play therapist, Sandwell General Hospital, Community Learning Disabilities Team Christmas Party, December 2004

BlacK & WhitE

When the time came to choose
It wasn't hard to see
Your heart could feel
The human in me

You chose to care
Helped me to paint
Played with me

Made me feel gr8

For a while we forgot
The fear in-between the lines
That my shell is darker
And yours is lighter than mine

But if the time came
And I was the only present one
Would my breath be enough
Resuscitation or pollution?

Most universal resources
Are enclosed in a shell
So inside are we different
What did the Genome detect?

Zayneb Khan, May 2009

Poem written in response to British National Party (BNP) campaign of hate and racism. A party that openly incites racism in a country my home that IS great and will always be due to the humanity residing in its communities.

I would like to share with you my experiences as a mother of two terminal ill daughters; Hajara Amer (1996 - 1999) and Sajida Amer (2002 - 2005). Throughout their short but rich lives they were cared, loved and played with by 98% white carers, nurses, docters, peadiatricians, consultants, therapists, GP's, student nurses and not forgetting our beautiful neighbours.

Our family has been fortunate in tasting the humanity residing in each one of us regardless of our race. The care and love my daughters received was unmeasurable and genuine.

When Hajara passed away, Andy our family support worker from Acorns Childrens Hospice wanted to pray with us in the mosque. He wanted to say goodbye to a child he loved.

Andy will always be for me, a man who has a noble heart and character. He asked Hajaras father if we didn't mind him joining the funeral prayer. Then, he stood in one of the rows in Birmingham Central Mosque and prayed with the Muslim community gathered to pay their respects to Hajara.

He never prayed with Muslims before, knew arabic or understood the rituals of a Muslim prayer. After the prayer he sat peacefully and reflected with the community.

Together as one.

--------------------------------------

Further information:

Hajara Amer was diagnosed with Sandhoffs Disease finally when she was 11 months old. Hajara had a full and rich life as she brought much joy and hope to all those she touched and continues to do so. She passed away peacefully in Acorns Childrens Hospice on 28th February 1999. http://www.acorns.org.uk/

Hajaras sister Sajida Amer (in picture above) passed away peacefully in my arms at home in March 2005.

Sandhoffs Disease is a rare metabolic disorder. http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/sandhoff/sandhoff.htm

Unfortunately at present there is still no cure. Organisations such as Jeans for Genes and CLIMB are fundraising to find a cure for Metabolic Disorders. http://www.jeansforgenes.com/http://www.climb.org.uk/

Innocence

2009-05-18T15:17:00.001+01:00

Click to watch, pause
Have a cup of tea
Click I like this
Post me on your wall
Do you feel better....really?

I'm the celebrity
Featured on your wall
Your the top recruiter
Champion of my cause

Its a good job
You can't smell me
Add me to your friends list
So that you can tag me

Lets get real
How would you feel
If you stepped out of your screen
Would you sit next to me?

I'm sure drama sells
Glad I could entertain you
Thanks for the PR
You look good mmm smell good too

Its not unusual, really
Don't frown, its my reality
I adapted to the colours
Framed around me

My world is the world you painted for me
You expect so much externally
I am your reflection
Why don't you like what you see?
No more innocence in the world
Children behaving like you and me

Zayneb Khan, 18th May 2009

Click here to watch award winning documentary - 'Flowers Don't Grow Here'
Poem written in response to the growing trend of children worldwide not having the choices to be children; to play, be innocent and enjoy their childhood.

Rabbi

2009-04-30T20:03:00.000+01:00

Rabbi

Your an emptiness in every city
A misery we ignore
A voice that echoes and mumbles
Your a crime protected by no law

You hold many faces
You have many names
Your existence raises many questions
Questions that crumble vain fortune and fame

Zayneb Khan, 29th April 2009

Poem written in response to the blog published by Mabrur Ahmed for Restless Beings on 27/4/09.
http://blog.restlessbeings.org/

I Feel ResTlesS....

2009-04-06T19:27:00.000+01:00

Photograph; Street kid, Dhaka Bangladesh. Looking for whatever she can get

I feel restless because I am incomplete

I feel restless because my survival is to compete

I feel restless because each day embraces me with uncertainty

I feel restless because I don’t have the choices to be

I feel restless because nobody truly believes I could be...

I feel restless because your silence erases my future

I feel restless because you claim but fail to deliver

You feel restless because I am a part of you

You feel restless and I feel restless too

Zayneb Khan 26th March 2009

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Stop Feeling ResTlesS and become part of a hub for the many restless beings who want to turn up the volume on poverty, injustice, persecution and the unheard voices around the world....

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