Poems and Collages
Respite/ Emma Sham-Ba
The tree outside the window grew new leaves.
Two birds built a nest.
The top of the tree is exactly on the hight of my eyes in the third floor’s window.
Trees grow by themselves.
Leaves bloom by themselves.
Birds fly by themselves.
People as well
But it is needed
To stop the momentum and rest
For building a nest.
Birds fly into me
13 * 25.5
Collage on paper
By Emma Sham-ba
Knowing / Ben Avi
I would have never known what love is had I listened to all the poems, all the novels, and all the films.
I would have never known what love is had I expected you to be somebody.
I would have never known what love is had I thought I’d known who I was.
I would have never known what love is had I stayed on the spring board.
I would have never known love is this.
I would have never known someone could be so deep in the chambers of my heart.
I would have never known that love has forms and love is formless.
I would have never known you as my mother.
I would have never known you, as my childhood friend.
I would have never known you, as a guest in the temple of god.
I would have never known you, as a stranger in this strange land.
I would have never known that love is still not knowing the other.
I would have never known, had I known.
Flowers
30 * 30
Collage on two walls and a ceiling
By Ben Avi
The two of us
11 * 15
Collage on paper
By Emma Sham-ba
Kochav and Courbet / Ben Avi
Co-pilots
On a desert adventure
On a quest for home
An adventure of a lifetime
Which planet will we visit today?
I’ve never seen anything like this before
I’ve never shown anybody anything like this before
God is a great artist
Enjoying me in my shallowness and in my depth
Is there really any difference?
Knowing you in your wisdom and in your passion
Is there really any difference?
We are the place where the poles meet
You make love to the canvas, the brush your dick
Your body my canvas and chocolate my brush
The chef eats his meal
And then he gets to fuck the sun
She melts my stuck energies
My stiffness
My agony
My pain
And I discover again the mirror inside of me
Then the sun gets to see herself
And I’m left wondering
Does that mean I too am a sun?
I'm left wondering
After a lifetime of adventures
Who are you Kochav?
Double
14 * 22
Collage on paper
By Emma Sham-ba
Fragile Eternity / Emma Sham-Ba
in my parents bathroom there were two mirrors
In front of each other.
When I stood between them
I saw my reflection being reflected
I saw my face and my face and my face
I saw my back and my back and my back
I saw my sides and I saw my other side
I remember trying to count and I remember my amazement
Realizing that counting could go on forever
The reflection huddled together
Getting smaller and smaller
One inside the other
And I had a daily date with assembled eternity
When I was a teenager
I stood between the mirrors
Imagining the man whom i will love
Imagining the man who will love me
Imagining how will it feel like to slowly unveil myself in front of him
As he will be looking at me
Seeing my naked beauty as a reflection of eternal beauty
When love entered at my doorway
love positioned itself in the centre
And asked us to serve as two mirrors
love became naked
And its nakedness was more beautiful than our nakedness
Love in the centre got to know itself as fragile eternity
love in the centre got to know itself with all its vulnerability
love in the centre got to know itself as a shaky star
love in the centre got to know itself as a story without sides