TAGHRID BOU MERHI

 

 

Stone: The Memory Of The Beginning

 

Stone

Was never silent

It was the first witness

To the trembling human hand.

 

It taught fire

How to obey

Becoming warmth

And food

And a point of gathering.

 

On its skin

Grain ripened

Hunger straightened its back

And shelter found its meaning.

 

It was a weapon

When life

Was forced

To defend itself.

 

It did not kill for blood

But for survival

For stone understands

The ethics of necessity.

 

With it, walls rose

Night felt safe

And the wind

Learned its limits.

 

Stone

Is the origin of the story

And still

Carries the shape of humanity.

©® Taghrid Bou Merhi – Lebanon – Brazil

 

She Rises With The Dawn

 

She walks through seasons of unspoken trials,

Carrying the worlds no one sees.

Her footsteps echo strength,

Gentle yet unbreakable

Like rain that softens stone

And still shapes mountains.

 

She gathers light in her palms,

Spreading it across the dim corners

Of families, cities, histories

A silent architect of hope.

 

Her voice, once a whisper,

Now rises like a sunrise

Slow, warm, unstoppable.

 

She stitches dreams from fragments,

Turning wounds into wisdom,

Turning silence into song.

 

On this day,

The world pauses to remember

What she becomes every day

 

A horizon expanding,

A heartbeat of change,

A woman rising.

©® Taghrid Bou Merhi – Lebanon – Brazil

 

I Am The One

 

I am nothing but a passing shadow

On a wall drowned in absence.

The streets taught me to be a woman

Who clutches her wound

As a small bird clutches its nest

Soaked by the wind.

 

I am the one born

From a womb swallowed by the earth,

Leaving in my blood

Rivers of questions that never rest.

 

Every evening,

I open my window to the noise of the world,

And I hear applause from afar

As if it were for mourning, not for joy.

 

I am a mother of apparitions,

A mother of poetry,

And a mother of pains

Left on my back by others’ fingers.

 

I believe in the dream

As though it were a ritual of prayer,

And I stand in the queue of longing

Awaiting my gift:

A delayed embrace,

Or a laughter lost

In the crowd of absence.

 

It exhausts me to be a woman

All surge and fire,

All nostalgia,

All fractured possibilities.

 

My head is crowded

With questions without answers,

And my body grows old

From the excess of waiting.

 

I am not a rebel,

Yet I know how to ride the streets

And hold my trembling

As if it were na ember,

Waving to it

Hoping it lights my journey.

 

I am a lover lost

From the stations of meeting,

Searching in the faces of passers-by

For your missing shadow.

 

Your embrace

Is the poem never written,

The spring wounded by my fertility,

The door I knock

That never opens.

 

Everything in me calls for you,

Everything in me

Refuses to surrender.

 

I am a woman

With windows in her soul,

With prayers in her fingertips,

With homelands in her tears,

And in her pulse

A revolution not yet born.

©® Taghrid Bou Merhi – Lebanon – Brazil

 

 

TAGHRID BOU MERHI

 

TAGHRID BOU MERHI is a Lebanese-Brazilian poet, writer, translator, editor, and media professional whose work bridges cultures, languages, and literary traditions. She resides in Brazil and is widely recognized for her contributions to contemporary Arabic literature and international cultural exchange. Bou Merhi has authored more than 23 books across poetry, short stories, essays, critical studies, and children’s literature, published in both print and digital formats. In addition, she has translated over 49 books and more than 2000 poems between Arabic, English, Spanish, Italian, and other languages. Her literary and translation works have been rendered into 49 languages and featured in over 340 national and international anthologies, magazines, and cultural platforms. She has played a significant role in cultural media, serving in senior editorial positions and as head of translation departments for several Arabic and international magazines. She is also the President of CIESART Lebanon and the head of the International Chamber of Books and Artists – Lebanon branch, as well as na international cultural relations officer in multiple global organizations. Taghrid Bou Merhi has received numerous international awards for her literary and translation achievements, including prestigious poetry and translation prizes. She has been selected among the top influential literary figures in Asia and has served as na international judge for major poetry competitions. Her writing is known for its humanistic depth, blending social, philosophical, psychological, and ethical dimensions, with a distinctive voice that advocates dignity, peace, and cultural dialogue.