Poems


Muse

for All Poets & Artists


I am ever found wrecked, as if:

Wishing for this and that.

But the urge

To be the supreme composer

Supersedes any established and forthcoming notions

Of existence and being.

 

O Muse! Where art thou?

Amid the noise of this and that,

I remain ever nostalgic for thy sounds.

And the supreme weapons

Are ever inviting:

Colours will to be an eternal waterfall,

And canvas remains ever famished.

I do not desire to be forsaken.

 

Ah! There art thou!

Now— be the god, be the devil;

Be the prophet, be the follower;

Be the saint, be the sinner;

Be the judge, be the accused;

Be the possessed, be the exorcist;  

Be the witch, be the witchdoctor!

Thou shalt be what and why

Thou shalt be what and why

And render me a peacock in trance:

To the tunes of thy wands,

To the fumes of thy potions,

And let it churn.

 

"What shalt thy verses be:

Composed or disoriented,

Contemplations and reflections,

Comprehensive or succinct,

Revealed and concealed,

Contradictions or concurrences,

Established and challenged,

Past and forthcoming,

Enigmas and stigmas

—I being the enigma,

Thou being the stigma? 

I, thy flute:

Ever a loyal subject

To thy tango performing hands;

Blow some air into my embouchure holes

And make the holes perform waltz

—Ever resonating thy sounds.


"Who shalt thy verses be for:

Self or others,

Or either or neither?

I, thy tabula rasa:

Let me be consumed by thy aurora,

As the sea waves are devoured

By the sand at the shore.


Ephemeral Echoes - Twenty Twenty-One Edition (2021)

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Again! - Sunyata (III)

for Nabila Gul, Fauzia Sami & Sidra Rizwan

after Still life with antique bust by Pablo Picasso (Spain), 1925 C.E.
after Antique Horses on the Agean Shore by Girogio de Chirico (Italy), 1963 C.E.


I

This pair of bronze surahees

—One, tall and slim;

one, short and fat—

Atop pinewood bedside desk,

stair at me—

As if the last pair

Of the endangered white giraffes

In the African Savanna.



~

"No, I will never give you up ever

To some random antique collectors

For some petty pennies

In the old city,"

As if they can hear and understand me.


II

And now the pumice mug

—With a picture of Apollo—

From my recent pilgrimage to The Acropolis, Athens,

Is all ears and wants to be the party popper.

And now the portrait of Horus on papyrus

—Peeping from around the corner of the wall —

From my last homage to Egypt,

Is lending senses to the co(m)motion in the room.

And now the China Dish

—With a painting of Confucius in a boat —

I had brought back with me

From my last visit to Beijing, China,

Wants to be the audience, too.

And now the blue nazar amulet

—A painter friend had brought for me

From her recent pilgrimage to Isfahan, Iran—

Is awake, too.


III

This is going to be a seriously entertaining night—

I had better take the three-piece suit off,

And slip into the pajamas,

I prepare myself for

An intense thriller feature, more like.


'Surahee' (Urdu): Flagon, or an Indian pot with a long neck.

'Nazar' (Persian): An eye shaped souvenir, which is used for personal and/or home decoration to protect a person and/or place from the 'evil eye'.


Owl Of Pines: Sunyata (2021)

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The Message

for Everyone
after Creation of Adam by Michelangelo (Italy), 1508 - 1512 C.E.


THIS IS The Message (to some, even The Writing on the Wall;

to some, even The Elephant in the Room)—Thought is The Mother of all inventions.

Beyond the incarcerations of necessity, afloat is its throne.

So what, at times, if it's even willy-nilly? So what?


Postscriptum


Did you know, the shape of the cape (or throne)

here is, but a depiction of the human brain?

Hence, Thought is The God; God, the thought.

You may subject it to the unnecessary dialectics of a priori

et a posteriori until the cows come home.

But unless you're blind or possess some/many impairments e.g.

Were never taught how to read and write, the denotations

and connotations are, but as vivid as the

twinkling stars in ether on a jet-black night.


PROSE POEMS: Biblio Alpha (2020)


Ocean, Fish and Boat

for Paul Ashworth & Labourers of the Ship Breaking Industry in the South/East Asia
after Loha Toar, Loha Khoar (Iron Breakers, Iron Eaters) by Amin Rehman (Canada), 2009 C.E.


I heard it from someone:

Apparently, the father

Of the so-called atomism is Leucippus;

Of the so-called heliocentrism, Aristarchus;

Of the so-called buoyancy, Archimedes.


But I have always had doubts,

If these folks were any original forefathers

Of any such discoveries or inventions.


For a fisherman and a boat-maker

Need not to know any theories or meta-theories

To know nature and workings of her works

—They, fish and ocean

Are instinctively assimilated.

And I always thought

That's what the heart of problem was

i.e. aiming to learn the world and her ways

Through the tongues, eyes and ears of others.


The other day, someone asked me

To define and describe

An ocean, fish and boat.

"To me," I said,

"ocean is the plate;

fish, the delicacy;

boat, a loaf of bread."


And the other day, I heard someone

Asking the money-worshipper:

"you eat the meat

and leave the bones

for fishermen and boat-makers.

Do you not have any conscious?"

And he said,

"this is the law of nature

i.e. small fish is eaten by big fish."


Ekphrases: Book One (2020)

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Lila and Maya

for homo-philosophicus


If ye show me—


I

Effects without causes

Sounds without vibrations

Thoughts without images

Words without letters


II

Water without moisture

Fire without flames

Wind without air

Sand without dust


III

Leaves without veins

Flowers without petals

Butterflies without wings

Oysters without shells


IV

Roots without seeds


I shalt show ye—

Lila without Maya.


'Lila' (Sanskrit): Divine Play/Drama.

'Maya' (Sanskrit): Illusion.


Metamorphoses: Poetic Discourses (2019)

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