La mosquée a Paris on June 28, 2019I sit cross-legged and quiet hunched under the dome’s weight and crenellated curves in riot in almost-touches of mystic state. Allah calligraphed in around and Muhammad alongside chanting the Muminun’s sound sensibility’s osmosis opened wide. Up rises a Berber figure clothed in jubbah and mystery he looms near and bigger and peers at my history. […]
Votive Peregrination on June 22, 2019The clap of thunder and jagged silence hails the sun-flaked swarm riding high in amomentary calm of synthetic awe. To witness emotions drilled in Time and fossilized like the luminous eyes of the loved ones now gone gently into the atrophied hunger of the blackening universe. All is stilled save for the ejaculations of a […]
The dragonfly and other poems on June 15, 2019There is something about the old Frontier Province which lifts the heart when crossing the Attock into the land of the Pukhtun; the poet awakens. That is what Sir Evelyn Howell, the outstanding Pukhtunphile, wrote; or perhaps it was that other Pukhtunphile Sir Olaf Caroe. Indeed when I met him at Cambridge shortly before he […]
Warrior for the underdog on June 8, 2019The legendary anthropologist Laura Nader has the heart of a young undergrad and the mind of a wise and compassionate guru. She is the champion of underdog causes. Her idealism has been unrelenting in her keen observations of society and politics over the decades. Her ideas of America derive from Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln , […]
They are taking them away on May 28, 2019sullen shine the stars the moon in agony aloof so still stand the palm trees the seasons are bearing my dreams away sanity suspended while all the black horrors of the mind uncoil slowly snakely settle over this land they came by night they came in shame they came to take the weapon and the […]
Walking the streets with the Dahta on May 18, 2019Walking the streets with the Dahta Lahore’s phosphorescent guts are blurred at night in November but in this night Jomay raat the Dahta walked in green neon and around his marble epitaph a thousand beggars begged in a unity insured by a complete selfishness only Hujwiri walked among them in wide-fingered benevolence; sight was […]
Save the Deputies of God on May 10, 2019When Jesus Peace and blessings be upon him Announced The commandment to “Love one another” He never meant Only love Black or white or brown people Or Jews only The prophet of Islam Peace and blessings be upon him Was called “a mercy unto mankind” He was a mercy not for one Or other Race […]
Where have all the flowers gone? on May 4, 2019If there was an iron-tongued flame that is spent today if there were damascened sunsets ablaze they are moth-faded now if there was colour on my cheek aglow and love in my heart afire that is in the past-now the phthisic routine; again and anon; to exist as torpid as the days inane patterns on […]
You, my father on April 27, 2019This poem was written for my father shortly before he left us forever. While dedicated to my father who I respected and loved immensely his generation becomes a metaphor for the older generation that lived and worked in the British Raj. My father was the generation that had transitioned from being subjects of the Raj […]
Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White on April 20, 2019It’s April The season of cherry blossoms Suddenly appearing everywhere All around A riot of subtle pink, burgundy and purple And apple blossom white And their sweet smell Mingles with every kind of magnolia Butterfly, yellow lantern, lily, Star andshiraz, Japan meeting the US East meetingWest, Along with daffodils and tulips The fragranceshowers the city […]