BOOK REVIEW

Fun facts

• Sir Walter Scott composed much of his bestselling epic poem ‘Marmion’ while on horseback.
• Poet Amy Lowell once bought a stash of 10,000 cigars, claiming she needed them to help her write.
• Seventeenth-century poet Sir John Suckling invented the card game cribbage.
• Lizzie Doten’s 1863 book, Poems from the Inner Life, included poems which Doten claimed to have received from the ghost of Edgar Allan Poe.
• The word ‘pamphlet’ is derived from a fourteenth-century comic love poem’Pamphilius; or, Concerning Love’. Pamphilius means ‘lover of all’.
• According to legend, Chinese poet Li Po died when he drunkenly attempted to grasp the reflection of the moon in the still waters of a lake.

 

Forgotten

By Amna Ameer

 

I walked away,

I took the sheathing whimsy,

Of your breaths,

And let the stars fall,

From my eyes,

As rain drops,

And I stepped on memories,

Like flickering lights,

From across galaxies,

With warm streams of tears,

Falling from my eyes,

I wondered how I’ll stand the truth,

That you will not remember,

This moment I’m perfecting,

For you,

You will look at me,

From a world,

Other than this,

Much ahead in time,

Already anticipating a goodbye,

The wind is not ready to carry,

But your feeble breaths,

Tremble with the worry,

In your premonitions,

No, I won’t leave,

The place you’re leaving behind,

How will I survive,

The assault of your footsteps,

And the delusion,

Of knowing your scent?

This departure,

Will destroy the marrow,3

Of all life in me,

And then my porcelain bones,

Will rattle in hymns,

Sung for you,

To echo in the faint voices,

Of the roaming night,

It isn’t fair,

To make me look at you,

And remember,

What you no longer remember,

That even the perfect memories,

And eternal days,

Are forgotten.

Today I learnt,

How finite even the past is,

Though it disappears,

In an abyss of past lives,

We only carry the unfortunate parts.

Ones that keep us awake,

Like me trying to replicate,

A moment,

That has already withered,

In the ravaging winter,

Of merciless time,

Passing

Lost and Found

By Asma Zainab

 

All my life I’ve been

My best sober self,

Avoiding all addictions

That life had to offer

Only to lose it all,

After all

But this time,

I’m going to lose myself

To the bitter crack

And the sweet wine

To forget everything

And leave it all behind

As I shoot agony

As laughter in the sky

And dance

Till my tears run dry

 

And the life

came to a standstill

By Afia Bhatty

 

My passions died

Emotions suppressed

Walking barefooted

Under the hot blazing sun

With my tears dried up

And the aching heart.

I think about the cruel fate

How could it all happen?

My cries remained unheard

And my pleas, unnoticed

Life lost its meaning

And the world, its charm

Now nothing means anything to me

And the one, who meant everything

Is nowhere in my life.

My smiles have gone

And the merriment forgotten

Never to come back.

And I don’t want them either

And the life came to a standstill

My passions died

Emotions suppressed

Walking barefooted

Under the hot blazing sun

With my tears dried up

And the aching heart.

I think about the cruel fate

How could it all happen?

My cries remained unheard

And my pleas, unnoticed

Life lost its meaning

And the world, its charm

Now nothing means anything to me

And the one, who meant everything

Is nowhere in my life.

My smiles have gone

And the merriment forgotten

Never to come back.

And I don’t want them either

For I wish to be alone

With my sadness and solitude!

Kindly send your contibutions at: uspoetscorner@gmail.com