How many times have I laughed like hyenas,
with blood curdling silence clutching at my throat,
with the absorption of all,
and the absence of all,
at daggers drawn.
How many times mountains, seas, and plains,
have I crossed with my soul yearning for home,
with the blood in my veins,
and the words in my brain,
at daggers drawn.
How many times indeed have I,
looked back again and again to the skies,
with immunity, solitude, and isolation,
and life, the world, rejection and depression,
with what's left of my fingers recounting,
and the new look, in vain, again arising,
in this black ambience,
these black ages,
with black,
and black,
at daggers drawn.
[by Black/Siyaah, circa 1990's]
-----
I initially thought I wouldn't put down any of my own experimental poetry here. Mostly because I don't write anymore...anything I have is quite a bit old. But I already snuck one or two verses past the net. Sometimes I like these bits and pieces from long ago a lot - they were part of a freer me - a more intrinsic, natural me. I am slowly losing these pieces, in more ways than one - from my own being, my memory and also in terms of hardcopies - not sure I have them all anywhere anymore.
These pieces are perhaps the more 'personal' side of my personal interaction with poetry in general, and Urdu poetry in particular, which influences me at many levels. My own experiments led me to appreciate the real masters better, and see the pinnacle where they stood.
I've thus noted a very personal work here. The title and content reveals my fascination with the metaphor of black and blackening that I later admired in the works of the Urdu masters. I should perhaps mention that it was around this time that I first adopted the nom-de-plume "Black".
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
11 comments:
Wow!
And I mean it...WOW!!!
You have some serious talent...and i agree even i have a fascination for the black and the dark...but ur work is pretty good i must say...esp the lines
with the blood in my veins,
and the words in my brain,
post more!
I am very surprised!
But I also have to add that it is very beautiful.
Blood curdling silence is an excellent oxymoron beautifully used in the present context. Im glad you wrote here. Gibran says "You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts;
And when you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart you live in your lips".
I think writing somewhere follows this idea on perhaps a subtler level and the need of putting yourself on paper, actually capturing a changing you is a need with which I can identify so much . Hope you keep writing.
Well! I almost deleted the post as an afterthought...guess it was good to let it be...
"...veins,
...brain". ah yes, those lines just came together somehow...internal conflict, that runs through the poem. A conflict also characterized by allusion to the two properties of 'black': "absorption of all" yet "absence of all" at the same time.
"blood curdling silence": It seems sometimes words and phrases just get created to represent a situation that is otherwise difficult to describe. The Gibran piece is so true. thx for posting it.
Thank you for finding it 'beautiful', and for the 'post more' / 'hope u keep writing' encouragement. With these kind of generous comments, I might have to post more sometime! though i really wanted to focus on other ppl's work and translations here...
Simply Superb! Never read such great poetry befre! Trust me, when I say 'never', I mean 'never'!
'never'!
That's way too much praise, but thank you for the encouragement anyway.
This is too good! I love the second stanza
How many times mountains, seas...
Hope to read more of your work.
"How many times mountains, seas..."
Thanks for the appreciation. I didn't really think there would be any interest in my 'experimental' works.
I seemed to have missed this post. Its a fascinating word .... blackening. For me though it brings out the connotations of a fresh beginning like the newly blackened board at the beginning of each term in school. I dont know, its just an image that jumps at me. I wonder how you read it.
For instance ... Fard-e-amal Siyaah kiye jaa raha hoon main ... from your earlier post ... Can I read it as an yearning for a clean slate, a new beginning, a fresh black canvas to begin with instead of a white one ? I am not familiar with the entire poem so I m not sure but then like you said its the.... the absorption of all, and the absence of all
I like your poems ... hope you will post more of them in future
arfi:
You've certainly given it a beautiful interpretation - to blacken can be read in more than one way- particularly, as you noticed, in the context of black representing both an absorption of all and an absence of all...
'Fard-e-amal Siyaah...' - Your interpretation here would give it a new meaning as well. In fact, that entire couplet is open to re-interpretation...am still thinking about it!
Thanks for the appreciation...I'll try to post more now and then, but I haven't really written much in a very long time...
Post a Comment