MOROCCAN FRIEND ~ August 2023 (revised edition)

Moroccan Friend

My eyes are deep
Laughter alights within them
The sadness I sometimes feel
I do not allow to spoil my day.

I love my work.
I have God's ability in my hands
to create something out of nothing.


I always do my best.

I will not compromise my faith.
I will not compromise who I am.
I will not turn my back on what I am.

I will, though, compromise my religion.
Religion is not the Guarantor of faith.
Faith is not hamstrung by religion.


I can love a man. I can love a woman.


And for me this is good.
This IS of Him.
I have His assurance,
Abandon me, He will not.

Nor will abandonment
here,
in this life,
be my confrontation,
my outcome…
except in minds
so minuscule,
locked within
the never touching
train tracks
to religious oblivion.

I love to walk the beach.
I love to feel the hot sand
beneath my feet.

I love to hear the crash of waves 
upon the seashore,
the call of seagulls.

One day I will walk the beach
with a hand in my hand,
and we will be at peace
with each other,
and with the world.

I am so richly blessed.
There are people
who DO take an
interest in me.
So I am not alone;
and I have only
to remember
this one thing.

The Creator has only to speak,

and it is!



I will lie me down upon my bed
in the watches of the night,
and I will listen to the night.
The gentle breathing of my Camel
close by, alert, gentle.


I will listen to the voices of the past.
I will know that these are my ancestors guiding me.
I have nothing to fear.

I am a beautiful man.
I am a beautiful creation.
I will be who I am.
I will be what I am.

 


4 August 2023
All Rights Reserved

LIVERPOOL

© 2023 Kenneth Thomas Webb

Author Note

Written in 2015 and in tribute to a friend in Morocco, which country is beautiful, whose people are wonderful, yet whose mindset sees me and my people as an affront to their God. That is not good.

Composed 2015

Ken Webb is a writer and proofreader. His website, kennwebb.com, showcases his work as a writer, blogger and podcaster, resting on his successive careers as a police officer, progressing to a junior lawyer in succession and trusts as a Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives, a retired officer with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, and latterly, for three years, the owner and editor of two lifestyle magazines in Liverpool.

He also just handed over a successful two year chairmanship in Gloucestershire with Cheltenham Regency Probus.

Pandemic aside, he spends his time equally between his city, Liverpool, and the county of his birth, Gloucestershire.

In this fast-paced present age, proof-reading is essential. And this skill also occasionally leads to copy-editing writers’ manuscripts for submission to publishers and also student and post graduate dissertations.