{"id":3213,"date":"2022-02-03T08:54:20","date_gmt":"2022-02-03T16:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/?p=3213"},"modified":"2024-12-12T09:56:26","modified_gmt":"2024-12-12T17:56:26","slug":"6-poems-by-faiz-ahmed-faiz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/6-poems-by-faiz-ahmed-faiz\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Poems by Faiz Ahmed Faiz"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n\n
\"issue10\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Found in\u00a0Willow Springs 10<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to Author Profile<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

\n\n

6 Poems by Faiz Ahmed Faiz<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

#1<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Victory is to return
alive after death<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in one’s palms
the lines of martyrdom <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I loiter in a lane
bloody with executions<\/p>\n\n\n\n

shadowed
by prisons<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The guillotine holds
the relics<\/p>\n\n\n\n

of springtime<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I thank the executioner
for these blossoms of fire<\/p>\n\n\n\n

my dream lit up
with galaxies \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

my eyes put out<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#<\/strong>2<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The rebels
and those who’ve ceased to rebel<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They cry:
Give your desolation\u00a0
some perfect name<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I search for one word\u00a0
to say<\/p>\n\n\n\n

without you
roses are not scarlet\u00a0
nor blood nor wine<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stained with ink
my shirts torn<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I walk the street of memory\u00a0
Desire tells me to knock
on your door<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You ask
Who are you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both worlds lost\u00a0
I go to the tavern
I praise the censor<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He condemned\u00a0
the cup-bearers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in my prayers\u00a0
I ask only for wine<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#<\/strong>3<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes when you almost smile, his heart breaks,
O don’t ask, into what longing!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All night he wept. When dawn came, its collars ripped
by the sun, he’d lost both earth and eternity to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So brief: Life, this sensation of forgetting God.
Almighty God, Coward not to allow us more time on earth!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world will somehow make him oblivious of you:
More enticing than you is the struggle to live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The taverns are deserted, the glasses desolate: You left,
o thief, with springtime in your pocket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My Visitors<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The door of my sorrowing house opens against its will;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

here come my visitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here comes evening, to spread out before her<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the carpet of nostalgia on all my streeis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here comes midnigiit, telling the story<\/p>\n\n\n\n

of her broken heart to the moon and stars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here comes morning with her gleaming scalpel<\/p>\n\n\n\n

to play with the wounds of memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here comes noon,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

whiplets of flame hidden in her sleeve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Here come all my visitors, round the clock<\/p>\n\n\n\n

they beat their way to my door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

But the heart and eye are not aware<\/p>\n\n\n\n

of who comes, and when, or who leaves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are far away, on that journey<\/p>\n\n\n\n

of the mind. galloping home,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

hands holding tight to the ocean’s mane,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

shoulders crushed under their burden<\/p>\n\n\n\n

of fears and forbidden questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Your Eyes and Mine<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In your eyes end  mine these thousand times of waiting<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and, in your body and mine these thousands of murdered hearts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the listlessness of your fingers and mine<\/p>\n\n\n\n

all the pens are mortally ill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In every street of your city and mine<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the ground down tombs of your fingers and mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

All the stars of your midnight and mine<\/p>\n\n\n\n

are riddled with wounds;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the flowers of your morning and mine<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ripped to shreds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

-these desecrated stars, without balm-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-these torn flowers, and no solace-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Oil the stars; ashes of the moon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the flowers, blood of still wet dew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Is all this really so?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or is it the web spun by the spider called imagination?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

If it is true, what can be done?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

And if it is not true, what can be done?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Tell me. Tell me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Flowers Have Gone to Seed<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

All the flowers have gone to seed;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the sky cries down its unrelenting tears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lights cannot find their luster;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

all the mirrors are broken to bits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What music there was is played out and lost;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the ankle bells on feet that used to dance<\/p>\n\n\n\n

are crushed to silence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Far away, behind these clouds, the star of pain<\/p>\n\n\n\n

advances and retreats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beloved of the night, it tinkles, it grins.<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":25234,"featured_media":963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpo365_audiences":[],"wpo365_private":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3213"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25234"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3213"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37626,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3213\/revisions\/37626"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}