Eternal Loves
Poem by Sidi Naajee
The cloud and the rain
The rain and the sea
Immortal pairs
The flower and the nectar
The nectar and the bee
Interminable buds
The mass and the curvature
The curvature and the gravity
Indefinite overtures
The rainbow and the spectrum
The spectrum and the light
Incessant colors
The husband and the wife
The wife and the love
Indestructible ties
The You and the me
The me and the You
Eternal Loves
RhA (RIP) My Love, Ricki Rae Babcock Nadji
October 13th
Poem by Sidi Naajee
On a beautiful fall day
Ricki and I drove away
To the Capitol Lansing
With hearts prancing
Full of hopes and love
'n barakat from above
2 friends of the bride
Joined us for the ride
Sh. Sobani, officiated
AHLL, we got united!
Her shart was clever!
No sister wives, ever!
Mine was that it forbids
Heathen names for kids
Wedding party followed
Simple 'n not so crowded
My friends 'n hers came
To help light our 
flame
Her family was there too
To bless the Union of two
Lovers who shared a dance
That lit 34 years of romance
Eight kids were there with us
They were our pillars 'n truss
Were it not for death 'n fate
October 13th, another date
Would've been a celebration
Of the lovebirds' coronation!
Happy 35th Anniversary, Sweety!
RhA (RIP) Beloved Ricki Babcock Rae Nadji
Footnotes:
shart is condition in Arabic
علمتني، رحمها الله
قصيدة لسيدي ناجي
مَدَنِيٌّ أنا و هي ابنةُ الريفْ
شتْويٌّ أنا و هي بنْتُ خريفْ
علمتني، رحمها الله
جاهِلٌ بأُمُور الزوجية كنتُ
بعطفٍ و حُبٍّ رفَعَتْنِي فقُمْتُ
علمتني، رحمها الله
جزائري الطبع و جُلِّي عنفوانْ
فأرَتْنِي جمال الحِلْم و الحَنانْ
علمتني، رحمها الله
لُغَتي و كِتَاباتي كانت عربيةَ المغاوراتْ
فبيَّنَتْلي أهمِّية الإختصار في العباراتْ
علمتني، رحمها الله
ظَنَنْتُ أني صابرٌ ذو عزْمٍ جِدُّ مُثابرْ
بصبرها تعلمْتُ عزْمَ الرجال الأكابرْ
علمتني، رحمها الله
أُبُوَّتِي حزْمٌ و جزْمٌ و صرامة
بأمومتها فقِهْتُ جوْهر الكرامة
علمتني، رحمها الله
جاهلٌ كنت أنا بآيات الله في هاذِ الطبيعة
فمَدَّت لي حبل وصْلٍ بالأرض بعد القطيعة
علمتني، رحمها الله
يا ربي تعلمت كثيرًا من ريكي، زوجتي
فاغفر لها و ارحمها كما كانت مربيتي
علمتني، رحمها الله
العين تبكيها
قصيدة رثاء لسيدي ناجي
العين تبكيها
و القلب يرثيها
و لسان الحال دومًا يُدنيها
حبيبة قلبي، لا شيء يُنسيها
ترِيبة نفسي ودعتِ الدنيا و ما فيها
أم أولادي، ما زالت جوارحي تنعيها
يا ربي الصبر أسألك، و السلوان فيها
أحببتها حبًّا صادقًا لاريب فيه، و لا شك فيها
سامحني يا رحمان إن كنتُ قد قصرت فيها
ارحم زوجي يا رحيمُ، و صبرني و أهليها
و اغفر لها و لي و لجل بناتها و لكل بنيها
و أدخلها فسيح جناتك يا ربي، و دعها تتنزَّه فيها!
رحمك الله يا حليلتي يا رفيقتي يا حبيبتي!
حزنت لفراقك
قصيدة رثاء لأم البنين و البنات
حزنت لفراقك يا أم البنينِ
و كيف لا يحزن المرأ لفراق أمٍ حنونِ
وردة الزمان أنتِ و شهده
و طول المكان أنت و عرضه
حزنت لفراقك يا أم البنات
و كيف لا يحزن القلب لفراق عروس السيدات
نبضة قلبٍ أنت و حياته
و فكرة عقلٍ أنت و زكاته
حبك يا أم البنين دائمٌ سائدُ
لا يعرف نهاية و هْوَ دومًا عائدُ
حزنت لفراقك يا أم البنين
و أسأل الرحمان سلوانًا لحزني الدفين
حزنت لفراقك يا أم البنات
و من لم يحزن عليك، فهْوَ أجمد الجمادات
حبيبتي أنتِ على مدى الدهر
و حبيبتي أنت يا أميرة الزهر
حبيبتي أنت و لو تحت الثرى
و حبيبتي أنت إلى ما بعد الكرى
حبيبتي أنت حتى بعد أن أحب
و حبيبتي أنت حبًّا أزليًا يدب
رحمك الله يا أم البنين و البنات و أدخلك فسيح جنانه
Eternal Torch (V1)
Poem II by Sidi Najee dedicated to Ricki (RhA) on the fourth month of her voyage to the afterworld!
In the days of madness
In the nights of sadness
Only your light shows the way
Light the path, oh Eternal Torch!
In the weeks of noise
In the months of mispoise
Only your radiance makes us calm
Light the path, oh Eternal Torch!
In the seasons of embers
In the years of scorched timbers
Only your calmness bathes us in coolness
Light the path, oh Eternal Torch!
In the centuries past and
In the centuries to come
Only your spirit can shine a light, so
Light the path, oh Eternal Torch!
In the torch a jewel shines
In the torch a name is inscribed
Only you and your name therein
Let it be known that only Ricki
Is my incessant Eternal Torch
That shines with love
That brims with hope
That glows with so ever happy thoughts!
RhA ya Ummal Baneeni wal Banat!
Eternal Torch (V2)
Poem I by Sidi Najee dedicated to Ricki (RhA) on the fourth month of her voyage to the afterworld!
Love is light
And, light never ceases to exist.
Love is sight
That never goes blind and shall always resist.
Love is a beat
And, it never fades away in the cacophony of life.
Love is a breath
That keeps us alive despite all the suffering and strife.
Your love, Sweety, is the Eternal Torch
That shall forever guide my heart and revive it henceforth!
My late father (RhA) teased me for bucking trends that most young man my age would take. He told me, "People start a family with two but you started one with four!"
What would a new immigrant do when the duties of fatherhood literally materialize overnight to care for a family and in a brand new country where the INS is not the friendliest of governmental agencies one would ever want to deal with?
A string of jobs had to begin, a fight for citizenship had to commence, and of course the drudgery of life renders all of us oblivious to the fact that death is grinding its way a picosecond at a time in an inevitable indefinite integral. For the uninitiated, the seconds we live add up to seconds we approach death. This summation that has no definite known boundaries is what math geeks would drily call an indefinite integral.
Heh, what a newlywed couple like us is to worry about? Ricki (RhA) and I were like teenagers then; we were approaching things as immortals. Sure we were from the get-go poor; a jobless immigrant Physix student and a special education student who just happens to be a supermom of two beautiful children. We were typical idealistic hippies who were determined to enjoy life and raise a family one way or another! Luckily for us, the grand parents generously allowed us to live in the home Ricki was living in at the time without rent to pay. So, odd part time jobs that deal with cash only were possible for me to undertake beside my PhD studies at MSU. The stipend I got as a TA coupled with the paperboy delivery and the carwash jobs, we were barely managing as a family. Love and unflinching belief in the goodness of fate were the antidotes that kept us moving forward. Love of one another, love of children, and love of life, as bitter and as harsh as it was for us then, did not stop the sensual lovemaking nor the childbearing! We were a children-making machine and a positivity-churning engine!
Yacin was born, a definite new inflection point and onto Act 3...
Note: This act was completed on 07/06/20.
