The Loved One — A Poem by Dr. Deeba Shireen
Dr. Deeba Shireen presents a poem about a loss that is unlike any other. Deeba’s verses explore the notion of oneness that is implicit in the bond between a mother and a child during pregnancy and after birth. Written from a place of profound and unquantifiable loss, the poem delves into a difficult
The Loved One[1]
The cord that binds me to the ’beloved’[2]
is one.
They say a half and a half makes
one
I search for the half or the
whole of me.
My breath coalesced yours
That jolt when your breath was ceasing to
be—
Our death was one.
Together our world is one.
The stretching of my skin
and the lap of earth is one.
The warmth of my womb
And the wound of earth is one
The thought of you and the
thought conceived is one.
The number of days we were apart is
just one
From one kun[3] to another
The word is one
The number of candles I couldn’t blow out
Is but one.
Endnotes
[1] Dawood in Arabic means “beloved”. The meaning of his name partakes from the meaning of the poet Agha Shahid Ali. In his Ghazal, with the refrain “in Arabic” he speaks about his name: “They ask me to tell them what Shahid means: Listen, Listen: It means “The Beloved” in Persian, “witness” in Arabic.” Shahid imagines his friend, James Merril uttering these words: “SHAHID, HUSH. THIS IS ME, JAMES. THE LOVED ONE ALWAYS LEAVES.” The title of the poem “The Loved One” is taken from these words imagined by the poet and uttered by his friend from the world of dead.
[2] Dawood means beloved in Arabic. In Islamic tradition, one of the names of God is Wadood (One who loves).
[3] “Kun” is from the Quranic phrase Kun fa Ya Kun (Be! and it is). Kun (Be) is a word that expresses the power of God’s command, where the word becomes the will.