POETS’ CORNER

Poems forever

After the winter

By Claude McKay

Some day, when trees have shed their leaves

And against the morning’s white

The shivering birds beneath the eaves

Have sheltered for the night,

We’ll turn our faces southward, love,

Toward the summer isle

Where bamboos spire the shafted grove

And wide-mouthed orchids smile.

And we will seek the quiet hill

Where towers the cotton tree,

And leaps the laughing crystal rill,

And works the droning bee.

And we will build a cottage there

Beside an open glade,

With black-ribbed blue-bells blowing near,

And ferns that never fade.

Into the night

By Momina Hasan

And when the night falls, dark and blue,

the wildflowers call to me.

“Hold my hand, oh dear hostage,” sings the nightingale.

The demons have feasted,

The shadows have ceased.

Walk the earth, my beloved, as you so please.

For in the stillness of the night,

burning cities are but devoted fireflies.

“Relish the darkness, oh dear hostage,”

sings the nightingale.

The paradox of being

By Arslan Hameed

I wish I were a river,

to flow with peace,

having all chaos within me.

I wish I were a mountain,

to stand tall, braving all odds,

holding all darkness within me.

I wish I were a bird,

circling the same sky,

discovering the cage was inward.

I wish I were not to exist,

to slip free of having to be,

dwelling into nothing.

I wish, in the theatre of life,

I were not to wish.

Ray of light

By Noor Ul Huda

When no one is around,

in the dark, gloomy night,

I think of you as warmth,

like the glow of firelight.

Your thoughts,

your vibes,

your positivity

do not fade from my life.

You are no longer here,

You speak no more,

Yet the words you once spoke

still leave their mark on my desires.

With every step I take,

I think of your words

as a ray of light

that shows me

the path that is right.

Those vibes,

those words,

are enough

to last me

the rest of my life.

We don’t talk anymore!

By Maryam Shah

The distance feels like an aphelion,

Two alienated humans

Living together.

One seems mute,

The other deaf,

Or perhaps both,

Like robots whose relationship

Is as emotionless as they are.

It is a cavernous correspondence,

Dark and dismal.