There, the poets of the world will plow
Their forgotten land,
To grow the trees of light,
Where all of them carry their flaming lamps!
Ashraf Aboul-Yazid
The 1001 Lamps of Jack Hirschman
On the streets of San Francisco
With his palm tree body
Jack was carrying his poetic ladder.
He used to support it
On the pillars of light and ascend
Holding a secret lamp box
To light up a thousand and one day:
He lit a lamp for freedom,
A glowing lamp that would illuminate the darkness
For guerrillas in the heart of their caves.
A lightning lamp for the caring mothers;
Of land, language, and people,
A lamp for the survivors of forced migrations,
And another lamp for the islands
Exiled from the sea of love.
He carried the last lamp
To roam the world’s roads;
From Haiti to Vietnam,
And from Colombia to Palestine.
Jack! I could see you;
With the legendary genie’s lamp.
You rubbed it and mumbled
Lamenting Dylan Thomas,
To raise music from his eternal note.
You danced with Allen Ginsburg
Like two sunflowers in Van Gogh’s fields
Before you ran by Picasso and Renoir
To put the seed of your last lamp
In the field of revolution.
There, the poets of the world will plow
Their forgotten land,
To grow the trees of light,
Where all of them carry their flaming lamps,
Holding their poetic ladders,
Supporting them where the poles rise
In the roads across the world,
To light the eternal lamp
Signed by Jack Hirschman.
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Ashraf Aboul-Yazid is President, Asia Journalist Association, Editor in Chief, The Silk Road Literature Series. He worked in Cultural Journalism for 30 years and is author of 40 books. He won Manhae Grand Prize in Literature, Korea (2014), Arab Journalism Award in Culture, UAE (2015), and Gold Medal in LIFFT Eurasian Literary Festival, Istanbul, 2021. This poem Jack Hirschman was published in anthology.
