Come and see how I cry
Forever without tears,
And the years wane and wax,
With me waiting for you;
Come and see this soul
That has yet to learn to laugh,
And how life wears
On a heart wandering meaningless in Time;
Without your sound and soul;
I am the heart that beats loud,
Waking up Bodari among the dead,
Waving for the ghost of Romeo;
I am the blood that runs fast,
Leaving the familiar and the known,
Believing in the uncertain to come as Reality:
I hope to see soon
The Light to myLife,
The tender tears to my thirsty eyes.
Born in Mogadishu, Somalia, the poet was raised in a politically prominent family; yet in his early teens, the poet and his family emigrated to the United States, where the poet lived for nearly two decades. Kassim started writing and publishing poetry at a relatively young age while still in junior college, and almost spontaneously fell-in with poets and poems, and has so been ever since; particularly the Romantic poets–William Wordsworth, George Gordon, Lord Byron, John Keats and Percy Shelley–drew his attention and engaged hìs intellect, so much so that, to this day, they represent more or less ‘the epitome’ of what Poesy means to him.The poet now lives in his land of birth and works as a freelance journalist and writer. Kassim is currently preparing manuscript of what he hopes to be his first book of poetry; the poet feels a particular attachment to John Keats and Percy Shelley for their vehement opposition to the inhumane effects on ordinary people such as the consequences of industrial development in their lifetimes–and reminds us that technological progress today does the same: ‘Weep, for the world is wrong!’ (emphasis supplied) (Percy Shelley, “Dirge”)