Songs in Search of a Musician

Described by one reader as 'sort of like Rumi meets Dylan', this collection of lyric verse brings a new voice to the long tradition of English poetry. Written from the unique perspective of a western convert to Islam in the 70's, Songs In Search of A Musician takes the reader on a journey across an inner landscape of emotion, reflection, insight and spiritual awakening.

Accompanied by striking and original black and white photos, the poems are gathered into four themed sections. The first, Zam Zam, deals with the relationship between the self and the Divine, with pilgrimage, prayer, invocation and rememberance, with death and the afterlife. The second, Asabiyyah, is a reflection on family, kinship, community, love and loss, travel and homecoming. Margin Call is a shouted cry against the crimes of usury banking, speculation, paper money, war and injustice. Sufi Blues is a mixed bag of songs about the human condition, poised as we are between fear and hope.

This first collection of poems, each with their own distinct rhythm and rhyme, is perhaps best described in the opening poem, Welcome Mat. And if you listen carefully, you may just hear the tune as you read.

Some of these are seriousAnd some of them just ain'tSome are like trying to bottle mistAnd some are like spraying paint

Some might cut you to the quickAnd some may cut you slowWords like stones in a dry stone wallOr drops in the river's flow

I offer them, just like the sapThat flows within my wristIn hope that you may catch the lineOr maybe get the gist

If good there be, it's from my LordOr from the ones that taught meSome just hit me where I stoodOr as I turned, they caught me

Some dropped from my eyes as tearsAnd dried here, on the pagesSome with sorrow, some with joySome quick, and some for ages

Some dropped like stone and rippled deepWithin my caged heartAnd some burst like a water bombAnd blew me wide apart

Come taste a little, taste a lotFill your belly, fill your potAnd take away the ones that stay and lingerOne may take your handOne may take your heartOr may just touch the tip of your finger