On Blindness by Tayeb Bouazid

On Blindness by Tayeb Bouazid

The world in its enlightened groom

Seems short

yet perverted.

It is the heart not the eyes

that impairs the shape of the world

in its fullest shade.

The world we see is crystal clear, a daylight

that may peep to the shortsighted

unequally the same.

For oft the one eyed profused in contempt

reflecting alone

A deep sigh engraving

the loss of the other eye

That the blind in remorse

longs to obtain.

He contented himself with the inner darkness

Wrapping his eyesight

living his world alone.

A world that the creature enlightened

with mystic visions

The vision of the heart surpassing the eye

That inward eye the sane eyed man

do not possess.

Fair creatures, vision seekers

do not to time cede

Lo ! how Louis Braille transcended blindness

To transform the lives

of millions of folks.

Helen Keller the American deaf-blind writer,

Conveyed through her lectures

The real functions of the activist.

Be proud , the blind men are in history taking helms

See Juan Carlos González Leiva –The Cuban lawyer

In his stand- a pillar for the Cuban

Foundation of Human Rights of the BLIND.

See Miles Hilton-Barber – The British traveler and climber

Together with James Holman then the Blind Traveler so called.

The eye not to the world may confine

The truth that we oftentimes hide

A blind may surpass in vision the sane

in his ethereal competing time.

Where is Homer –the Ancient Greek orator

of the epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey ?

Where is John Milton –the Poet who was blind

for the last twenty years of his life?

And though Milton lost his first eye

under the physicians’ pursuit

He procrastinated not in writing

his books on Paradise Lost

He lost his second eye

yet not his writings compelled.

What bravery that modest scrivener

to the world had shown

In his deep search for illumination

A light that some lost others behind

might find of merits to the mind.

Lo ! how precious eyesight to writings compare

That Milton did never falter to devote.

In the same wave Nikolai Ostrovsky, Aldous Huxley

Ved Mehta, Jorge Luis Borges and Taha Hussein

Had to the world shown their great talent

 engraved their names.

God alone the supreme

had in life them endowed

with an enflaming flame

That lightens in black nights

when torches to destinations redeemed.

Nabil our great scholar in his long eternal muse

Had thought it right all right

That success was not an easy game to gain

Hence he cast away laziness in a peevish hurry

And Wrapped for his master degree

With an offhand ease that he profused in time.

He swam and strove the meddling waves

As a brave soldier standing on his alert.

The world is light for the blind

As the night is dark for the sane

The blind , should no more be seen belittled

For richness in hearts and faith abide.

The blind that in his demeanour oft misconceived

Can travel to far distant summits marking his fame

Let us then observe the Ugandan-Norwegian athlete

Tofiri Kibuuka - One of the first three blind people

To reach the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro

With pride that echoed his warm chest and breast.

And not far from the same trend, Erik Weihenmayer

The First blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest

Venturing time, defeating the pleasure of his own rest.

See how those who see are often blind

For the truth in them

Is not yet discerned

Hence,we may live blind

yet with true vision

Than eye sane with bad deeds

widely prolific.

The blind , my dear , had over time challenged

And defied the world with strong records

The blind is no more to the chairs confined

But roves the world and sets the alerts on the scenes.

See Doc Watson – the guitarist and Stevie Wonder

In his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

And Song writers Hall of Fame inductee.

See Terri Gibbs – the country music singer and musician

Lulling Akbar Khan the Indian singer.

See Maati Bachir in his golden voice

Echoeing the Algerian music Halls

in solo , the swans Oum Kalthoum and Saliha the Little great

Chanting whetting their throats

Amidst the world of the blind names are in constant rise

See Esref Armagan, the Turkish painter

Who was born blind

See Didymus the Blind – the Ecclesiastical writer

of Alexandria

See Ed Lucas –the Sports writer and Francis Joseph Campbell –

the Anti-slavery campaigner

See Colin Low, the Dalston, Member of the British

House of Lords.

Blindness, this faculty, stirs

the spirits in muse,

Long pages in ink scriveners

will not suffice

In conveying the secrets

The blinds may enfold.

The world counts in deeds yet not in years,

That man’s outward eye

Often failed to contemplate and gaze.

At times ,onlookers project in distant their views

Yet they missed the target,

They missed the promiscuities.

The blind may scent his tears when rightly shed

For having not touched and not felt the unseen

Yet, the sane may lose his tears in remorse

For having wept for the mirage yet in vain

See the blind and appease his ailed heart

Lest his inner traits forget the appaling awe

And laugh in serenity the mocking world

The world of eyen two, yet in essence blind.

Tayeb Bouazid is a graduate and postgraduate lecturer in the English Department University Mohamed Boudiaf, Msila, Algeria. He has an MA in psycho pedagogy and TEFL, a MEd (with specialisation in Environmental Education (UNISA) and a Teacher Trainer Certificate of Advanced Studies from Lancaster University. In addition, he is recently awarded a completion certificate with Middle East Partnership of the best practices in teacher training programs. Mr Bouazid is a freelance writer for the London School of Journalism and he is a sixth year doctorate student at the University of Batna, Algeria.