POETS’ CORNER

Fun facts

• There’s a poem titled ‘Plakkopytrixophylisperambulantiobatrix’, written by G. K. Chesterton.
• ‘Flyting’ is the term for a poetic slanging-match something like rap battles nowadays, where two poets compete in turns with streams of abusive verse.
• In the source poem Romeo and Juliet, Juliet is 15, while in Shakespeare’s play she’s 13. Nobody knows why Shakespeare decided to change her age for the play.
• The three biggest-selling poets in the world are Shakespeare, Lao-Tzu, and Khalil Gibran.
• E. Cummings dedicated his self-published volume of poetry, to the fourteen publishers who had turned it down and he titled it ‘No Thanks’.
• Allen Ginsberg’s most popular poem “Howl,” was so radical for its time that Ginsberg’s publisher was arrested on charges of immorality.

Who art thou

By Suhd Nazeer

Hark O love! Thou art like a flame

yet a flame doth die

it doth form ash

thou dost neither

but rejoice at my burns

dancing thy relentless dance.

Crushed

By Bariya Faisal

Tell me, my tormentor

Is my only sin to love thee?

My heart used to blossom

when you were around

But why o’ why

You crushed my heart

with a stamp of a foot

All those beautiful memories

you hurled down the drain,

Mercilessly, you broke every vow

Silently you ended it all.

Timeless affliction

By Obaid Atique

It’s timeless affliction

Those intoxicating hitting words

Glittery illumination soaked the scars

Dreadful tears embracing the weary soul

Life that uttered curse

Dominance of motivation that mildews awe

People urged who I’m

The dysfunctional art clung to heart

Harmony that acted as an evil magician

Heat of the moment where I guzzled darkness

Fags hydrated the ancestry split

Dervish

By Khadija Tariq

I am tied up, knot on top of knot.

I’m the mirror, showing all six directions but I cannot contain you.

Look at my face.

These tears are traces of you.

You, my love, you picked up a handful of universe

I was in that handful.

I absorb your shine, and now I see the ocean, gazillions of simultaneous motions moving in me.

I’m a dervish and your love feels like Friday, every day feels like Friday!

Now you’re angry with me for telling you this.

Pay attention to those who hurt your feelings telling you the truth.

You know I’m terribly sick, I’m a broken wineglass and you’re my wine only you can cure me.

Unspoken words

By Shafi Rehman

Let me decipher these unspoken words

They are sitting on my chest like a flying bird

My raw emotions are intertwined along them

And my dreams are buried deep inside them

They have a journey long and deep

The promises are there I’ve to keep

The moment of silence in between their expression

I can’t hide in them my burning passion

These words have a sense for senseless souls

And hope for those who fell on the floor

I’ve these words drowned in the sea

You and I don’t have their key

Twitterpated

By Maham Syedain

You and I are;

Nah,

Not intertwined,

Not tied either,

Not even tangled.

We are twitterpated;

Immersed, lost-

Never to be found,

Ever.

Tale

By Bushra Mustafa

A long time companion,

for the secrets was hidden.

The feelings admired;

and the sorrows absorbed.

A melancholy of years,

the pillow did its best.