October 10, 2020
By Rokaya Chaarani
There’s certainly some magic somewhere:
Deep faith washes away the grief,
Romantics enjoy the unfelt sweet breeze,
Free spirits have secrets up their sleeves.
What life is even about?
I kept asking myself all my life
But I slowly figured it all out.
I started remembering the writings on the walls,
I started noticing the light,
In the back of my mind, I knew I was right.
What life is even about?
You wake up, you live, you love, you fail and you fall
And then your winter depends on the power of your soul.
Everybody is responsible for their own call,
Reflection matters, the universe is a mirror ball.
What life is even about?
My mother tells me my pessimism is overwhelming,
But why do all my poems seem to have hopeful endings?
The people I know believe that I’m too young to know
But why do most of my thoughts not seem to grow?
What life is even about?
You might never find the answer
Or think about the question.
But someday you’ll figure it out,
You’ll remember the writings you were too blind to see on the walls,
You’ll eventually find your own light only if
You believe there’s certainly magic somewhere,
Your deep faith washes away your hardest grief,
You enjoy the unfelt sweet breeze,
You are a free spirit who garnered some secrets up your sleeves.
Rokaya Chaarani
Contributor
"What Life is Even About" is a little poem I wrote about a month ago. It was inspired by Madonna's song "Live to Tell", featured in the British film Shanghai Express (1986). When I first heard "Live to Tell", it resonated with me in such an extreme way that I thought I could imagine myself saying those words and feel exactly what she meant. Many of my poems incorporate the theme of questioning and/or discovering the facts of life, which is very important to me, as this theme is literally the backbone of my life. Writing, especially poems, is a personal experience, and it becomes even more personal when you include something you think only you understand, so this poem somehow reveals thoughts that have long been rooted in the back of the mind and shed light on who I am.
Rokaya Chaarani is a Moroccan university student and poet. She has been writing poetry in English since the age of 18. Her favorite poets are Sylvia Plath, Ann Sexton and Edgar Alan Poe.
Images credits:
Featured image – Instagram: @dvanweeghel
