Us Poetry Competition ‘17
Runaway
By Ussama Zafar
I realize
That most of my words
Are of no worth at all
All I speak of is misery,
All the sadness and gore
That surrounds me
All that I say is a series of
Unheroic tales, of disaster
And melancholy
And descriptions of places
I’d rather not be
So, finally, I decided today
From now on, I shan’t again say
However tough
May be the case
Let’s run away;
Runaway to a new place.
I promise
That I won’t bother you more
Or for that matter,
Anyone, anymore
I swear I realize
What demon I have been
How much I hurt you
How I wronged you
And how you suffered
Unjustly, in place of me
And I swear I realize
To never do this again
Trusts shouldn’t be broken
And friends should stay friends
So let’s escape; we’ll make it
Hold my hand, trust me if you can
For I’ve seen in you
My very own
Personal piece of grace
Let’s run away;
Runaway to a new place.
I refrain
From speaking of misery any more
And I request you, my lovely
To accompany me
As I run away, and away
I promise that this time
I shan’t cut off your wings
This time, I’ll put up a good fight
And let love win
I won’t run faster this time around
I’ll let you catch up, I promise
And each time we fall
I won’t insist to pick you up
I’ll let you grow,
Just not away from me
I’ll let you burst up,
And settle in your beauty
And if you wish
You can run faster
I’ll follow your trace.
Let’s run away;
Runaway to a new place.
I’m not promising
That running will surely be the key
It would change the wrong past
That it would set you free
But even if it doesn’t,
Just run to feel your hair
Just run for the sake
Of us being together
Let the wind kiss your face.
Let’s run away;
Runaway to a new place.
Message in a bottle
By Maham Syedain
She walked along the shore, her eyes a hue of gold.
She sensed the aura as serenity covered the sea,
boundless of all calamities.
Unlike her life, perplexed and up tight.
Meager-did she think of herself, chaotic and a complete mess.
Sauntering towards a pile of rocks, she cursed herself all the way.
A lustrous bottle embedded in the pile,
radiating an unusual sparkle;
caught her eye.
‘A message in a bottle,’ she whispered picking it,
in an urge to pry.
Unfolding the letter inside, she read the golden words,
which no one ever told?
“Dear you, you are a fire in the ice.
Snow in the summers,
a melody too raw and a wind too fierce,
a fruit so ripe, and a passion too deep.
But, the pearls your eyes hold,
and the secret your heart keeps,
reveal a different you, my sweet.
Don’t you know? Flowers bloom every season,
sunlight seeps through the day,
emanating rays of hope,
filling each corner with light,
Dissolving into a starry night.
Then shove aside all the woes,
grasp the message you hold so tight.”
With moist eyes she kept the letter aside,
touching the golden words endlessly,
she hummed the song of hope beside.
The letter changed her life,
For the sender was none other than,
Her real caged self
Inside.
Seeing our demons
By Gulrukh Iftikhar
I hear you talk about how the starry sky was lit and brightened the night
Why do you only talk about the night sky when it is starry?
Have you ever looked at it when it is pitch black?
The starry sky is the same to you and me: bright and beautiful
A dark sky, however, is different because we see our demons in it
You look up at the dark sky and it stares back at you , smiling mockingly,
like it knows all your secrets ; all your deepest, darkest, dreadful secrets
and gives you a cold feeling in the pit of your stomach
You look away and never talk about it because you don’t want to acknowledge your fears and sins
The dark sky is so dazzling that it is almost blinding
It speaks so loudly to you that it is almost deafening
You see , the dark sky doesn’t cheer you up like the starry sky,
it scares you because it shows your true reflection and you are so damn scared of your reflection
Is that why you never talk about the sky when it is pitch black , dark and silent
because it scares you?
But then again,
doesn’t everything real scare you?
Emotions
By Shafi Rehman
These swirling and twisting emotions imbibed in hue
The meanings they tell are subtle but are not blue
I get lost in the whirlpool of their silhouetted view
My vision is clear but my mind has no clue
The glossy and shimmering beams of the hope
and melancholic sound of whispers around the globe
The embedded dreams are their along the line
I cannot taste all the courage of this wine
I am hearing the voices they mumble secretly to me
I know I am going along the flow of this stream
My fate is in between my happiness and sadness
The dark clouds of despair are not their forever.
Worldly facade
By Sidra Arshad
She rinses her face
With tepid water,
And looks up to gaze
In the mirror,
She wonders what exactly
Is wrong with her fate,
And suddenly, down her spine
Runs a shiver!
She dabs a little pink
On her lackluster eyes,
And a hint of charcoal
Highlights her eyes,
She can feel that the world
Shall be kind to her now
But herself, she cannot
Help but despise!
Cleansing
By Haseeb Sultan
Asking her to listen to me
was like forcing the floss thread
on to my gums.
Because it is needed,
but is done the wrong way.
So the gums bleed
and she doesn’t see,
i want to know her version of me
and who is she.
My words will come to her when
she wants to find them
and I can very well look at the world
till when our lenses align
and we feel the same
If only you see
me that way.
By Hafsah Qadir
I have hills that bathe in a blanket of clouds,
And mountains that echo a beautiful tune.
Sunflowers and daisies dancing amid the breeze,
In rhythm with the waves jovial to the moon.
There are secrets and wisdom in the rings of the oak,
Poise and artistry in every call of the whale,
Akin to the love letters left behind for the beloved...
Every color of the rainbow leaves a trail.
The storms in your heart strike the thunder,
In veils of the sky and fathoms of the sea.
The fireflies reflect the spark in your eyes,
The currents of your soul fly wild and free.
Hopes are cloaked in every turn of season,
Dreams mirrored in every imprint in the sand,
Why has the darkness unnerved your will,
When every ray assures to brighten your land.
There’s a chance with every drop of rain,
And a promise with every word you pray,
I have a fresh start in the edges of loss...
If only you see me that way.
How do I move on?
By Asma Javed
A glint on water’s wavy bed
And the silent, gentle sea-side breeze
Makes me wonder how
Some things
Just need to be
How some things
Are absolutely vital
For one to survive
For one to breathe...
Air,
Water,
Home,
You...
So tell me
How do you
Put out
A need
And be OK?
And still exist?
So tell me...
If you are the path
I move on
How do I
Move on from you?
Black thoughts
By Ali Asghar Ghani
Do you talk to people?
she asked
Yes
frequently I talk to
invisible, eternal, psychopath
friend of mine
who
every now and then arises
from the depth of
dense and impenetrable forest of vessels
circulating
in the black streets of my mind
like an
intoxicating drug
