Showing posts with label beauty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beauty. Show all posts

Eventide and in the Morning (Revisited)

I can still vividly remember hearing the takbir Raya for the first time. I was a few years old back then when we were still living in Taman Putra. It was very early in the morning, just as the sun was rising, at an unusual time for me to be up. Wandering around the house half awake and groggy, I heard a faint sound coming from the outside.

Out of curiosity, I walked to the locked front door to peer outside and inspect what that sound was and where was it coming from. I looked around and saw people with white jubah, baju melayu, and white telekung walking towards the nearby mosque. I clutched the cold grills with both hands, with complete childlike wonder, peering further into that faint, mysterious sound.

And then it came. Floating frighteningly, rapidly, soothingly through the peaceful still morning air. The serene music sent tiny ripples throughout my body. A million goosebumps erupted on my skin and sent a sudden shiver down my spine. That was how I felt the first time in my life that I heard the takbir Raya. Years and years have since passed, and it still gives me that same feeling from that morning in Taman Putra. That sensation that resonates and uplifts me like nothing else. A sense of peace and melancholic serenity.

I've never heard of any sound, any song, any music, more beautiful than that. And I know I'll never hear anything else that will sound any more beautiful than that.

(I've posted this before, but I think this is a more appropriate time for this post)

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri to all of you.
Hope you'll have a spectacular time getting fat on ketupat and rendang.
I know I will.

"Ornament your Eid celebrations with the Taqbir" - Prophet Muhammad S.A.W.


Burn the Blue Eyes




How could such a simple song played by two girls with just a harp, a kazoo and a children's toy sound so effortlessly amazing. The words are barely comprehensible. The lyrics are absolutely bizarre. The music screams of melancholy. Their almost-falsetto, raspy voice weave such carefree yet superbly serene Daedalian sounds.

When you throw all of those eclectic mixture of seemingly unconventional nonsensical elements together...

How could it not leave you completely dumbstruck with unutterable emotions.
How could it not stir whirlpools of blood, rushing through your tired veins.
How could it not raise your hair like thorns on a rose.
How could it not silent your inner turmoils.
How could it not titillate your fragile spine.
How could it not move you to paradise,
even for a fleeting moment.

How could it not tie your heartstrings together in such convoluted beauty,
in the most captivating manner possible.

But...

Isn't it odd that someone could feel so much pain and anguish over something so profoundly beautiful. That he would listen to the very song that would literally choke him with invisible tears. His heart cries blood, imagining what might have been, what have transpired, and the frightening thought of an uncertain future.

With trembling fingers, he types these all too familiar words of misery. Trying so hard to let out those trapped emotions onto this superficial public space for the world to witness, with hopes that expressing in complete honest nakedness that these cries could somehow miraculously silent his dysphoria. He tries, and tries, and tries, to find solace in this song that inflames bittersweet memories of her. The lovely melody of the harp, those almost-falsetto raspy voice, plays on repeat for what seems like an eternity.

And eternity it is, because in life some wounds just refuse to heal. Our tangible skin would wither away to ashes, but the intangible pain remains. Completely defiant against time, it remains. As it is yesterday, as it is now, as it is tomorrow, ad infinitum, ad nauseam.

With trembling fingers, he types these ever so familiar words of misery. Because misery is a butterfly. He tries, so hard, to convince himself that within this wretched cocoon that something better might blossom in time to come. It's dreary outside, but come tomorrow the sun will slowly but surely chase away the darkness. Maybe it will be a pleasant morning, with a slight cool drizzle of sweet acid rain, and maybe after which a rainbow might appear and colour the sky pastel.

With trembling fingers, he types these foolish words, and tries to not black out again and in process burn the cigarette on his fingers, yet again. We do foolish things in the name of love. But we do even more stupendously foolish nonsense in the name of sorrow. Being stupid for the sake of being stupid is stupid enough. But being stupid because of someone else would render the word 'stupid' completely inane, because a word for such profound stupidity doesn't even exist in the dictionary.

With trembling fingers, he types, "I am such a fool".

Without You

Without You


Your fingertips across my skin
The palm trees swaying in the wind
Images

You sang me Spanish lullabies
The sweetest sadness in your eyes
Clever trick

I never want to see you unhappy
I thought you'd want the same for me

We walked along a crowded street
You took my hand and danced with me
Images

And when you left you kissed my lips
You told me you'd never ever forget these images, no

I never want to see you unhappy
I thought you'd want the same for me

I cannot go to the ocean
I cannot drive the streets at night
I cannot wake up in the morning
Without you on my mind
So you're gone and I'm haunted
And I bet you are just fine
Did I make it that easy
To walk right in and out of my life?

Goodbye, my almost lover
Goodbye, my hopeless dream
I'm trying not to think about you
Can't you just let me be?
So long, my luckless romance
My back is turned on you
I should've known you'd bring me heartache
Almost lovers always do

The Girl in the White Dress

What can be more alluring that her warm sweet smile carved by such sweet sultry succulent lips wrapped around her soft porcelain face. Her braces twinkles just as her eyes sparkles so adorably. Her silky, jet black, bobcat hair she wears bounces on every careful rhythmic step.

Like a cup of moist chocolate mousse. Soft, tender and melts ever so gently in your mouth. It melts onto your tongue, flowing gently through your body, and into your heart of hearts.

She walked up to me, smiling widely, and politely asked in completely disastrous broken English, "Some tea or coffee you like having? Very nice very warm, on the house no pay you are guest".

I asked for some coffee instead. She walked away, presumably to get my "very nice very warm, on the house no pay you are guest" coffee. But after a good 20 minutes I figured she must've forgotten all about it.

Idiot.

Eventide and In the Morning

I can still vividly remember hearing the takbir Raya for the first time. I was a few years old back then when we were still living in Taman Putra. It was early in the morning, just as the sun was rising, at an unusual time for me to be up. Wandering around the house bored and groggy, I heard a faint sound coming from the outside.

Out of curiosity, I walked to the locked front door to peer outside and inspect what that sound was and where was it coming from. I looked around and saw people with white jubah and baju melayu walking towards the nearby mosque. I clutched the cold grills with both hands, with complete childlike wonder, peering further to that faint, mysterious sound.

And then it came. Floating frighteningly, rapidly, soothingly through the peaceful still morning air. The serene music sent tiny ripples throughout my body. A million goosebumps erupted on my skin and sent a sudden shiver down my spine. That was how I felt the first time in my life that I heard the takbir Raya. Years and years have since passed, and it still gives me that same feeling from that morning in Taman Putra. That sensation that resonates and uplifts me like nothing else. A sense of peace and melancholic serenity.

I've never heard of any sound, any song, any music, more beautiful than that. And I know I'll never hear anything else that will sound any more beautiful than that.

I am You, but You are Not

The beauty in life lies in the fact that there are no certainties. There is no absolute truth, no real answers, no definite reasons, no perfect equations. Nothing is for certain. Life is arbitrary and constantly changing, evolving, and spinning in unpredictable cycles. Everything we do can be explained by science and mathematical equations, no doubt. But at the same time they are not definite. It is not final. It is only an estimate. It is only the best possible approximation of perceived truths.

I suppose that's why I find art so intriguing. There is no correct interpretation. There is no true perceptions. There is no final answer. There is always a question. It can always be this, that or it can be nothing at all. And it can be everything at the same time. Art, in the most general sense of the word, is so multi-layered. There is so much texture, movement, meaning, story, questions. There's always a question mark.

That is why art is so beautiful. That is why life is so beautiful. Because we are always left guessing. Always wondering. Why, what, who, when, where.

What is real, what is not.
What is right, what is wrong.
Where are you now.
Where will you be in the future.
Who were you yesterday.
Who are you today, now, at this moment.
Who will you be tomorrow.
Who will you be in the future.

Who am I today, now, at this moment?

I am a pensive wanderer. I am a sinner. I am a fake, a lie, a shadow wearing a mask. I am an overjoyed, confused, meandering self-righteous moonstruck boy. I am a normal person. I am a reader, of random words, of moonsongs, of strangers. I am a writer of complete, utter nonsense. I am a pretentious elitist bastard. I am concerned son. I am a terrible father to my cats. I am a lurker, a stalker, a voyeurist. I am a happy person. I am a sad person. I am a pseudo protagonist in a make believe world.

I am a hollow heart. I am the blood that runs through my veins. I am the vibrating particles in this tired body. I am the fingers typing on this keyboard. I am the amber at the end of my burning ciggarette. I am the smoke that chokes this troubled room.

I am someone. And maybe, just maybe, we'll meet again in another lifetime.

(Don't forget to say hello, because I won't)

028/5, 4:50


Torment me with your beauty. Throw me into your tempest of troubles. Pull me into your gravity. Strum my heartstrings with your lullabies. Dazzle me with your chaotic meanderings. Engulf me with your fiery passion. Let me wither in your frail arms. Drown me in your tears. Drag me to your bitter end. Lets marry our fears. Like the naked leading the blind.

(You'll be a beautifully painful memory)