by Agha Shahid Ali
What will suffice for a true-love knot? Even the rain?
But he has bought grief’s lottery, bought even the rain.
“our glosses / wanting in this world” “Can you remember?”
Anyone! “when we thought / the poets taught” even the rain?
After we died–That was it!–God left us in the dark.
And as we forgot the dark, we forgot even the rain.
Drought was over. Where was I? Drinks were on the house.
For mixers, my love, you’d poured–what?–even the rain.
Of this pear-shaped orange’s perfumed twist, I will say:
Extract Vermouth from the bergamot, even the rain.
How did the Enemy love you–with earth? air? and fire?
He held just one thing back till he got even: the rain.
This is God’s site for a new house of executions?
You swear by the Bible, Despot, even the rain?
After the bones–those flowers–this was found in the urn:
The lost river, ashes from the ghat, even the rain.
What was I to prophesy if not the end of the world?
A salt pillar for the lonely lot, even the rain.
How the air raged, desperate, streaming the earth with flames–
to help burn down my house, Fire sought even the rain.
He would raze the mountains, he would level the waves,
he would, to smooth his epic plot, even the rain.
New York belongs at daybreak to only me, just me–
to make this claim Memory’s brought even the rain.
They’ve found the knife that killed you, but whose prints are these?
No one has such small hands, Shahid, not even the rain.
Call Me Ishmael Tonight
Copyright ©:
Agha Shahid Ali Literary Trust
A few random poems:
- Three Songs To The One Burden by William Butler Yeats
- Николай Языков – А. Н. Очкину (Было время, мой приятель)
- Robert Burns: Farewell To Ballochmyle:
- Владимир Маяковский – Уже из-за снежных заносов прекратилось… (РОСТА №774)
- Sonnet 16 poem – John Milton poems
- CLAUDIAN’S OLD MAN OF VERONA by Abraham Cowley
- The Isle Of Portland poem – A. E. Housman
- Columns by Rudyard Kipling
- Василий Жуковский – Теснятся все к тебе во храм
- Василий Жуковский – На первое отречение от престола Бонапарте
- Tracks In The Private Country
- Doomes-Day: The First Houre by William Alexander
- Song—Farewell to the Highlands by Robert Burns
- Sonnet 40: Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all by William Shakespeare
- A Hairline Fracture poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
External links
Bat’s Poetry Page – more poetry by Fledermaus
Talking Writing Monster’s Page –
Batty Writing – the bat’s idle chatter, thoughts, ideas and observations, all original, all fresh
Poems in English
- Halls grew darker poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster
- Gamajun, the Prophetic Bird poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster
- Don’t fear death poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster
- A Girl Sang a Song poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster
- A Girl Was Singing In A Church Choir poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster
- The Wizard Way poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Twins poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Titanic poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Tent poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Rose and the Cross poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Quest poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Priestess of Panormita poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Pentagram poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Neophyte poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Mantra-Yoga poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Interpreter poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Hermit poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Hawk and the Babe poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Garden of Janus poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Four Winds poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
More external links (open in a new tab):
Doska or the Board – write anything
Search engines:
Yandex – the best search engine for searches in Russian (and the best overall image search engine, in any language, anywhere)
Qwant – the best search engine for searches in French, German as well as Romance and Germanic languages.
Ecosia – a search engine that supposedly… plants trees
Duckduckgo – the real alternative and a search engine that actually works. Without much censorship or partisan politics.
Yahoo– yes, it’s still around, amazingly, miraculously, incredibly, but now it seems to be powered by Bing.
Parallel Translations of Poetry
The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works