About

The works of Omar Albawab, pen name The Closet Mystic. Oscillating between the romantic, cathartic, transcendent, and deeply raw, Omar’s poetic voice is unique, inspired, and often heart-wrenching – but always honest.

In his early 20s, Omar Albawab — a Southern California native — began walking 5–10 miles a day, every day. Alone with his thoughts and his soul for hours at a time, these walks — a type of moving meditation — took on deeply contemplative and reflective tones. Epiphanies, often of a profoundly spiritual nature, were frequently had and jotted down to return to later.

One day while walking, the impulse to write a poem overcame him. Never having written poetry before, he had the sense it would be bad — awful, really — but didn’t care. He did it anyway. And then, he did some more. And some more.

And more.

After stumbling for longer than he’d care to admit, he found his footing and his voice. Poetry quickly became an instinctive form of emotional catharsis — the very act of it healing and liberating. Themes of spirituality, love, bare vulnerability, and intense yearning color his poetry — the exposition of his very soul.

What does The Closet Mystic mean?

The Closet Mystic: a phrase that describes my very approach to life, steeped in a hidden layer of mysticism. Much of my mystical bent on reality is veiled from the public eye, a quiet life I live under the visible persona. It enchants all I do, all I say, and all the ways in which I choose to live.

Mysticism, however, goes far beyond the spiritual. The atheist and the agnostic alike can experience mysticism as deeply as the spiritual or the religious.

God, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

To be a mystic is to be regularly enchanted by what others may view as entirely mundane. To be a mystic is to be moved by the beauty of creation, no matter what you believe of its origins. To be a mystic, ultimately, is to love — in perception, in word, and in action.

Every piece of writing here is an act of mystical observation — a snapshot in time where I was enchanted or enraptured by what was before me. I’ve chosen to share this with you: a piece of me, and ultimately, my heart.

Thank you for reading.