Poetry

Her foot is its own kind of tree — Four Poems by Robert Hirschfield

Her foot is its own kind of tree — Four Poems by Robert Hirschfield

When Robert Hirschfield was 37 years old, his mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Over the years he became her caregiver and eventually began a poetry project to honor her memory. Now at 82 years of age, the poet and journalist, world traveler and resident of New York, presents four such poems fr

Into the Wide Blue Sea — Two Poems by Arnab Chakraborty

Into the Wide Blue Sea — Two Poems by Arnab Chakraborty

Arnab Chakraborty presents two poems fueled by two of the greatest themes in literature—death as dissolution and love as captivity—both of which are addressed in an original manner. The first poem—in its dialogical approach of referencing a great literary character—follows the allusive tradition of

Two Kashmiri Ghazals by Ather Zia

Two Kashmiri Ghazals by Ather Zia

Ather Zia recites two of her ghazals in Kashmiri for a people and their land, where the idea of a "prolonged longing" has emerged, such that time is always out of joint because space has been bent and constricted. It is in such spaces and under such circumstances where the poetic verse resists despa

Street Secrets — A Poem by Rumuz E Bekhudi

Street Secrets — A Poem by Rumuz E Bekhudi

Kashmir’s resident poet Rumuz E Bekhudi presents a poem shaped by an economy of verse that packs volumes and tomes of meaning into eight small verses—communicating the silence that makes islands out of beings submerged in a state of loneliness, even amidst a togetherness buried deep in the fabric of

Matamaal — A Poem by Saba Zahoor

Matamaal — A Poem by Saba Zahoor

Saba Zahoor presents a poem that is close to the heart of anyone who has experienced the love, warmth and care of grandparents. These verses are a testament to that love, because more than in its presence, it is perhaps more deeply felt in an absence or in a void of some sort. More often than not, f

Tell the Pacifists of Your Land — A Poem by Quratulain Qureshi

Tell the Pacifists of Your Land — A Poem by Quratulain Qureshi

Quratulain Qureshi presents a poem that sends across a message that the poet summarizes clearly, without embellishments, and in her own words: “It is wrong and highly problematic to equate the fight of a people for their rights and dignity with that of the oppressive methods of their persecutors. He

Captain Fluf’ is a Rager? — A Poem by Bayed Mubarak

Captain Fluf’ is a Rager? — A Poem by Bayed Mubarak

In a poem that invokes Edward Said's memorable words in the first verse, Bayed Mubarak surprisingly takes an altogether different direction in engaging with a language of simplicity and childhood. A bird, Captain Fluf', becomes a metaphor for innocence at a time when children have been killed with b