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:
- On A Spaniel, Called Beau, Killing A Young Bird by William Cowper
- Robert Burns: The Poet’s Progress : A Poem In Embryo
- Creative Branding Solutions – So Why Do I Need a Logo?
- Goody Blake And Harry Gill by William Wordsworth
- Rule I By Eric Mottram Stop Writing Literature You Garrulous Indian
- Владимир Корнилов – Командировка на Север
- Shaftesbury Feäir by William Barnes
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Ткач
- A Conjuration To Electra by Robert Herrick
- Gigolo by Sylvia Plath
- Омар Хайям – Мой друг, о завтрашнем заботиться не след
- Drinking-Song, A. To a Formal, Proud, Sober Coxcomb by William Wycherley
- Ship Starting, The. by Walt Whitman
- Myself
- Lord when the wise men came from farr by Sidney Godolphin
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
- Алексей Толстой – Угораздило кофейник
- Алексей Толстой – Ты знаешь, я люблю
- Алексей Толстой – Ты жертва жизненных тревог
- Алексей Толстой – Ты почто, злая кручинушка
- Алексей Толстой – Ты не спрашивай, не распытывай
- Алексей Толстой – Ты любишь в нем лишь первую любовь
- Алексей Толстой – Три побоища
- Алексей Толстой – То было раннею весной
- Алексей Толстой – Темнота и туман застилают мне путь
- Алексей Толстой – Тебя так любят все
- Алексей Толстой – Сватовство
- Алексей Толстой – Стасюлевич и Маркевич
- Алексей Толстой – Средь шумного бала, случайно
- Алексей Толстой – Смеркалось, жаркий день бледнел неуловимо
- Алексей Толстой – Слова для мазурки
- Алексей Толстой – Слепой
- Алексей Толстой – Сижу да гляжу я всe, братцы, вон в эту сторонку
- Алексей Толстой – Шумит на дворе непогода
- Алексей Толстой – С тех пор как я один
- Алексей Толстой – Рука Алкида тяжела
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