Lingering

Should I follow my echo or chase it?
Would it know I‘m there?  Would it
hear me and agree to share?

Sometimes it stays here and goes
nowhere. The walls the halls, I can’t
hear it when the thunder sends its
echoes though the window’s pane.

I don’t think my clock even has one,
unless you consider vibrations on my
nightstand. Is it the echo, that resonates
with the thoughts I sometimes have?

It must be my echo that has you tremble
when our hands hold. Does it make a
difference if it is hot or cold? I know the
echo goes up and down.

I’ve heard it surround me when coming
from a mystic’s bell. You think it meets
up with other echoes around?

Pleasant thoughts, pleasant things are the
subjects my echo plays. I don’t mind listening
to that over and over and over and over again.

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Photograph: Tania David.  Poetry: M A Shaheed.

M A Shaheed began writing in the seventh grade and continued after high school. First published in White Motors newspaper under the name of Clyde Shy. The column was called “The Poets Corner,” that he’d helped to establish. In 1963/64 living in Stockholm, Sweden, he wrote stories for  a photographer whose pictures were sold to newspapers & magazines.  M A  Shaheed became a professional musician, playing bass violin and played  with major Avant Garde musicians. Continued to write, but it wasn’t on the front burner. In 1966 joined poetry workshop called the Muntu Poets, headed by Russell Atkins, noted Avant Garde poet and composer along with well- known poet and playwrite Norman Jordan located in Cleveland, Ohio. At the end of that year “68”,  began to work on his spiritual development. M A  Shaheed stopped writing for 3 decades, but driven back to his pen by a clearer understanding of the real reality. Has since published 44 books, been in numerous anthologies. Working with a new publisher, with 3 more books on the way. The genre includes novellas, poetry, short stories, Flash Fiction. “My goal is to keep writing until I stop, until I can no longer hear.”

Visual artist Tania David with roots in photography focuses on photo collage, sculpture and mixed media.  Originally from New York, she lives and works in her studio outside of San Miguel de Allende in Guanajuato, Mexico and has shown her work in San Miguel de Allende and Mexico City.