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Al-Andalus

John E Marks
1 min readAug 19, 2019

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Photo by Austin Gardner on Unsplash

“Spain, under Arab rule, became the most civilized country in the world.”

Max Dimont,The Amazing Adventures of the Jewish People, Behrman House, 1995, p. 81

Arabic spoken in Andalusia,

after 400 years of the inquisition.

Muslim houses, in Bosnian villages,

with crosses on display

despite the threat of apostasy.

……….And slay them wherever you come upon them: Surah-Al-Baqarah [2:191]………

Morning as fresh as one –

the Buddha knew –

the flowers of the valley,

the grasses of the plain,

shine with the unbidden light of heaven

the earth a holy place again,

though nothing shall remain.

……..

The future aligned with heavenly ways,

these are the words of the wise,

look at the weeping at the side of the graves

by those who are still alive.

………

And on inauspicious days,

with no quarter offered, or taken:

Riot, lobby, accuse, condemn,

the ‘faithful’ seek the blood of men.

……..

shake off these shades of numerology

live without angels

blossom, as men…..

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John E Marks
John E Marks

Written by John E Marks

Beauty is the only thing that time cannot harm. Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood. T. S. Eliot

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