IBRAHIM HONJO

 

 

When We Say Destiny

 

When we are happy about what happened

We excitedly say destiny

When sorrow befalls us

We say fate bitterly

 

Destiny is when the storm breaks the bones

A wall raised by a weak hand

In which pain is wrapped

And every defeat that crushes us

 

Don't curse fate when sadness overtakes you

She is neither a bad nor a good mother

It is a word with which you had to forge your own cross

 

The truth is harsh and short

We are made of blood, bones, and flesh

Stars are made of light

Fate is neither a fetter nor a boon

but a story that stumbles the soul

 

When you open your eyes and see clearly

You realize that sadness did not fall from the sky

You have already surrendered to her

building the illusion of his powerlessness

 

It's Not To The Stars

 

They told you

that everyone has their own star

that it's written in the stars for you

One night, you'll believe

that someone's hands were on the helm

even before you were born

 

The word destiny was first spoken by a man who fell

and then by one who wasn't allowed to get up

Destiny is a soft pillow

For heads full of giving up

That's why we say it had to be that way

We don't blame the feet that stepped on the wrong path

We put everything under the mantle of destiny

Because everything fits under that mantle

We forget that no finger pushes a stone

Only a hand that lifts it

And a heart that puts it in the first place

 

Destiny is a story we hide in

So that we don't have to tell the real truth

We shouldn't take our hats off to the sky

It doesn't do anything for us

And it's not about the stars

All it's about us

 

IBRAHIM HONJO

 

IBRAHIM HONJO is a Canadian/Bosnian poet /writer. He is the author of 11 published books in English and 35 in Serbo-Croatian. His poems have been published in more than 100 world anthologies and in more than 70 magazines, journals, and newspapers, as well as on radio and TV stations. Honjo's poems have been translated into Italian, Spanish, Korean, Polish, Slovenian, Bahasa (Malaysia), Mongolian, Turkmen, Turkish, Russian, Bengali, Portuguese, French, Arabic, Tajik, Vietnamese, Persian, Chinese, Macedonian, Filipino, Greek, Albanian, Azerbaijani, and German. He participated in three literary conferences: Reckoning 2007. Vancouver, Udaipur, India, 2016; online conference in India, 2021, 2023; and many significant literary festivals in Canada, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Ghana, India, Morocco, etc. Honjo was born in 1948. In Yugoslavia, the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In Yugoslavia, he has worked as an economist, journalist, editor, marketing director, and in Canada as a property manager. He is currently retired and resides in Vancouver, BC. Honjo has received many awards for contributions to the popularization of the written word.