‘Meri Dunya’ is a book of poems and verses by Humaira Syed. Drawing inspiration from the likes of Qateel Shafai, Munir Niazi, and Nasir Kazmi and getting mesmerized by their music and poetic magic, Humaira chose to carve out her own path, letting life lead her wherever she needed to be.
Through this moving poetry book, she recounts her life’s journey, taking pleasure in simple things like drinking a good cup of coffee, telling tales and sharing feelings, staying clean, and appreciating the beauty of Mother Earth.
Humaira also speaks of her struggles with depression, her recovery, and traversing old age. Throughout it all, facing life’s endless challenges, the folklore of her life continued to dance to her own tune, incessantly singing her freedom song.
‘Meri Dunya’ is a motivating look at one woman’s journey through the vicissitudes of life. Poetry lovers will gulp this beautiful book with delight.
Humaira uses modest words to create fascinating images. The verses keep your eyes attached to the pages as you find yourself reading and re-reading poems that are wrapped in grief, loss, heartbreak, hope, courage, and much more.
There is a sense of familiarity to the pieces that inspires you to discern their import in depth. What makes Humaira’s poems relevant is the universal subjects that they search. Everybody goes through the everyday rigidities of life and looks forward to connecting with another person through her/his art. In my opinion, Humaira achieves that outstandingly.
The book is fit for the general reading audience and covers a variety of themes. With work covering such subjects as love and nostalgia for the things, we half-remember this work is a study of the human heart and the significance to our souls of loving as much as we can. Whether that love is for a person or the memory of someone, we parted ways with a lifetime ago, the love itself is constantly strong within us, and reflections upon it will help us grow.
It is important, I believe, to stop and take stock of our lives every occasionally; to contemplate the roads that we travelled to bring us to where we are, as well as the ones not taken. Poetry is, of course, a strong tool for such reflections, and as I took my time grasping the poet’s work I found myself thinking about my own experiences with love. The ways it has changed me, the ways even lovers I have not seen in years helped inform who I am.
There is agony in some of those memories of course, but there are also happy times that I found myself smiling about as the poems of Humaira splashed over me and took me on their journey of reflecting on the love I have given out and received over my life.
