POETS’ CORNER
Poet Robert Browning began corresponding with fellow poet Elizabeth Barrett after the publication of her 1844 volume “Poems,” when he was 33 and she was 39. The couple decided to marry in secret in 1846, since she feared her father wouldn’t approve (she was right; she was disinherited). Still, they were devoted to each other, and influenced each other’s work (her “Sonnets from the Portuguese” and “Aurora Leigh,” her second volume of “Poems,” his “Men and Women”), staying together until her death in her husband’s arms in 1861.
I, too, sang for you
By Zahra Akbar
Not in pursuit of the pride flowing
in ditties of celebrated ties;
but in a sombre act of being
an ode conceived from your rhymes,
I, too, sang for you.
Songs sweeter never in sodality
of strings and pipes designed,
but in quietness that souls adorn
at moments of divine serendipity;
I, too, sang for you
carols death can never consume,
melodies marching to the other side
to place an earnest kiss at your brow.
The eyes you
used to love
By Arooba Khurram
The eyes you used to love,
Now are shedding tears,
Why is life getting so tough?
Trapped by pain and countless fears.
The eyes you used to love,
Have now stopped dreaming,
Blank as the vision of a mourning dove,
Chased the endless horizon that seemed gleaming,
But left with nothing.
The eyes you used to love,
Are devastated by your absence,
Missing your essence,
The eyes you used to love,
Are not the same anymore!!!
Twinkle, twinkle
By Bushra Mustafa
Toughened by struggles,
with experience becoming handy;
a wrinkled face,
with glittering eyes,
were looking towards the sky.
The smoke hindered,
dimmed,
belittled,
those tiny stars-
yet they had a whole world,
in themselves.
He wanted to be that star-
small as eyes can’t search for;
but holding a pool of secrets,
yet brightening,
galvanizing,
the infinite sky!
Polkaed
By Neelum Afridi
To the left and to the right
I swirled my legs with the fire
It blazed high; I hopped up
It was driven by the wind;
I swerved on my back, faced the sky.
It turned orange; my blood boiled.
The fire sputtered while I polkaed with it.
Plea
By Zunaira Afzal
It stings me,
When you wear silence
And on the pages
Of my diary
Rhymes kept missing
Speak O love,
And complete my poem...
Candid
By Alina Mughal
When the masquerade ends
You will chase a soul
Through the twists and turns
And the unseen bends
When you reach her
You will see a face
Through the mask and powder
And the enigmatic eyes
When the fog clears
You will find scars unhealed
Through the maze of broken dreams
And the challenging gaze
But the question is
Will you love her
for what she has been all along
Or to the imposter does
your heart belong
Star
By Sidra Amin
In this eerie space
I explode and whirl in dark,
To light the universe.
Compiled by SK
