Waswasa means delusion, misgiving, or suspicion in Arabic; literally, “the sound of a whisper, rustling”, a secret word repeated endlessly in the heart is called waswasa; thus it’s association with Shai’tan (Satan/the Devil), and the playing on the folly of human desire. Habibi (حبيبي) means “beloved”, “darling”, “my love”, and is used in this sense. I think it’s a fun word.
Hubb means “love” – I’ve chosen the varying words for the vocal/tonal quality and nothing else. Well, not only…
This is an improvisation and it will not be corrected; part of the piece is the mistakes we make in attempting to paint the portrait of our expression, and to tilt the frame to better portray the artifice cheapens the expression posing it.
Waswasa (Whispers)1st draft. Final draft. Improv. Finished product.
1
In the long shadow of silence there is violence, there is spare,
numerous forms and shapes of fear rising in the fire;
and the smokeless forms that rise, in the dust-storm of the night,
lights up Sahara with fear and delight;
The desert is cool in beneath
from the winds in the street up to ha-kok’vim.
in the dust-storm and the flares,
lights up the night with fear and delight
in a tempest of storms and arabesque;
How can unseen things with such fury
Pull grain into a kingdom of sand in the rain;
within these waking dreams
we see these things
that no one deserves but who would refrain?
2
Who would not weep when they fade with smoke,
and are replaced by desires cast at a stroke,
Desires deep and strange which coat
The face in sweat the eyes in webs;
passions and desires cast on our tongue,
deep and strange
And we utter words in such a way as though we don’t
know what we say;
Glossolalia, speak in tongue, they say.
but the tracks they leave behind fade away,
and leave us staring into the day
With eyes wide open seeing nothing, just to say,
A whisper on our lips witgh love in mind,
With the fire in our eyes and desperation on our mind. the tracks they leave behind, the trace, the wrinkles under eyes
keeps us staring blindly in the fire.
3
Waswasa habibi, whisper my love,
Tell me all I want to hear my dear, my Hubb*
Tell me all I need to do is listen to you
Tell me you’ll always be there
Dear fantasy why don’t you lie to me
Why don’t you cradle me with a false reality
Waswasa habibi, whisper my love
And tell me all the right ways
the reason why I should stop or should stay
Why I should take a stand against an uprising
take back a first impression or just move on
Waswasa, habibi, waswasa to me,
Tell me the lies I need,
I need,
I need…
And the devil drives a hard bargain
For a man beset by greed.
4
There was a whisper ever neater
that spoke to me from in the mirror:
A smile curled like a thumbnail moon
An alabaster face of gloom
Dim headlights are dim though bright
is the flicker of fear and fright
of what the whisper tells us at night
in the silence, the violence of quiet
when all is calm and still
Waswasa is there, to jinx and to dare
To pull you like a fish out into the air
4
Oh whisper to me, waswasa, habibi
Show me the oasis and the coke machine
The machinery of delirious dreams
Deliver to me my pain and I’ll feed
Away on myself until I will bleed;
Habibi, my love, waswasa, come on,
hm, hmm, hm, hmm, hm hmm…come on my hubb,
Hm, deh, hmm,
In life I may have been much less,
But in death by my last breath
I’ll have spent such time, immense,
That in the end they’ll say “ze mensch!”
5
Waswasa habibi, whisper my love,
Tell me all I want to hear
Tell me all I need to do is listen to you
Tell me you’ll always be there
Dear fantasy why don’t you lie to me
Why don’t you cradle me with a false reality
Waswasa habibi, whisper my hubb,
Meh’ho’ved kok’vim, Respecting the stars,
strewn through space in such divine disregard,
Bless us all below;
Bah’ruch be our love, blessed be our hubb;
And tell me all the right ways
the reason why I should stop or should stay
Why I should take a stand against an uprising
take back a first impression or just move on
Waswasa, habibi, waswasa to me,
Tell me the lies I need,
I need,
I need…
It’s more than I can muster but the devil, he’s a hustler
say what you will but he will deal
if the price is only right…
But such a price is never right one’s soul cannot be bought
nor price
6
Whispers in the dark are echoes of a spark
A spirit struck a chord and fluttered through the park
Between the hole in the wall and the fall
Where we walk between the raindrops and freeze
When we see the oasis and drink machine;
is it cool to touch, habibi? Waswasa to me;
Oh genie could you grant, you demon if you cant,
no wish – just silence – if you can?
Delirium is more than some
over active imagination
desire is more than greed taken form
And waswasa more than whispers are born:
Habibi my love, habibi my sin,
shut the door on your way in.
Atlas would not stand for this
And Sisyphus is missing this with his rock and scissors kit
Paper covers rock and wins and the rock slides down again.
7
Whisper to me, tell me you need,
All the things that I have dreamed
To hear from you, that I need it too,
That I need something more than I do,
That I need more money or things to fill
The hole in my soul where God should live
And if it should remain a hole,
Let it stay that way and go!
No wish from me foul djinn, you fiend!
You genie of darkness and monsterous things
Waswasa was more than a whisper, it seems,
it was a reflection talking back at me.
8
Waswasa habibi, whisper my love,
Tell me all I want to hear
Tell me all I need to do is listen to you
Tell me you’ll always be there
Dear fantasy why don’t you lie to me
Why don’t you cradle me with a false reality
Waswasa habibi, whisper my love
And tell me all the right ways
the reason why I should stop or should stay
Why I should take a stand against an uprising
take back a first impression or just move on;
But there is no moving forward now, not when
You’ve kissed the floor in the valley of sin.
brandon the writer | author & staff writer for sir swag 