A Poem Tree

^{Erasure Poem 24 (sketchbook 2021), biro & gel pen on photocopy paper, © N Nazir 2021}

<sup>It is a bright summer’s day
I walk vigorously with excitement
an atmosphere of joy
following the Golden River

I am surrounded by expansion
a clear highway to wild land
a kaleidoscope of changing landscapes

All at once, creative forces collect in me
the real, surreal and unreal
I open up in surrender</sup>

Shared for dVerse Open Link Night

^{© N Nazir 2021}

Do or do not, there is no try

for time is measured in gadflies
and marks that leave no trace on sky.

I should take the moment and shake it
wake it and wear it, slake my fingers through it.

Is repentance a waste of time
or crucial for a soul upgrade?

I scored a try once but it was a fluke
and I ran like the wind out of unease not strategy.

But if I do do it, will I become something new
sooner than I wish to?

And if I don’t, will I lament the not-knowing of not-doing?
Where can I lean in-between?

Do or do not, there is no try
but what if your all is a shortening fall and you die?

Was it still worth the try
though your grappling left no trace on sky?

***

I’m a bit late to the party but I’ve just penned this for the dVerse Poets Pub movie line prompt. I chose “Do or do not, there is no try” from Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980).

Thank you for reading 🙂

^{_{Thumbs up from the cloudman, digital photograph, © N. Nazir 2020}}

^{© N. Nazir 2021}

A hay(na)ku poem

In
this eerie
mushrooming of days

writing
is luxury
in thieved moments.

There’s
nothing else
to do but-

Elsewhere,
home becomes
a hollow dust.

^{© N. Nazir 2021}

Written in response to Sammi Scribbles Weekend Writing Prompt: Eerie, 24 words

A French Poem

Prompt: L’amour est une oiseau rebelle (Love is a wild bird)

Prompt: L’amour est une oiseau rebelle (Love is a wild bird).
Inspired by the famous and most wonderful song from the opera, Carmen.

L’amour est un oiseau rebelle
L’amour est une chat noir errant
L’amour est un message dans une bouteille livrée
L’amour est une coccinelle marchant doucement
L’amour est une lotus brillant dans un marais 
L’amour est le carquois dans la flèche
L’amour est une tempête qui reste même après qu’il est passé
L’amour vous ébranlera comme vous le vouliez
L’amour est un jeu pour les dieux et les imbéciles
L’amour vous écrasera et vous élèvera
L’amour vous choisit, pas vous il
L’amour est aussi pour les astronautes solitaires
L’amour jouera à cache-cache puis rirea dans votre visage
L’amour est votre perte et votre fabrication
L’amour est le régal que vous ne vous attendiez pas
mais que sais-je de l’amour?
Je suis un imbécile comme tout le monde.


^{_{© N. Nazir 2021}}

I set myself the challenge of writing a poem in another language and decided to test my questionable schoolgirl French.

Of course, I used translate to help me. The challenge was in trying to create elements of rhyme in another language.

Anyway, it was my first attempt, so please forgive its naïveté.

Here is the English translation for you:

Love is a wild bird
Love is a black cat roaming  
Love is a message in a bottle delivered  
Love is a ladybird sweetly walking
Love is a shining lotus in a swamp  
Love is the quiver in the arrow
Love is a storm that remains even after it has passed
Love will shake you the way you wanted
Love is a game for gods and fools
Love will crush you and lift you up
Love chooses you, not you it
Love is for loner astronauts too
Love will play hide and seek then laugh in your face
Love is your undoing and your making
Love is the treat you didn’t expect
But what do I know about love?
I’m a fool like everyone else.

^{_{© N. Nazir 2021}}

^{_{Sprung, digital photograph, © N. Nazir 2019}}

A Poem for Rumi

How did you learn so much about love?
You praise the emptiness as much as the fullness and overflow.
You take me with you to the mountains, the stars you speak of.

Did you wander lonely in the desert for your Beloved?
What form did he take when he arrived?
Did you dance for him?
What honey tongue did he speak in?
Did you weep with relief and kiss the earth
or did you fall on your knees and laugh mad with joy?

You become orb, grow ever-wider as you spin like the celestials.
Perhaps you are with them. Perhaps you are here again.
Would you know how much your words have outlived you?

You span and span, alchemised
joined everything as one
became geometry
crossed thresholds of being.

You alone understood that the broken heart has finally opened
and the wound is only the knowledge it asked for.


^{© N Nazir 2021}

Written for dVerse ~ Poets Pub

Prompt: Write a poem for/about a poet you admire.

^{_{*image found on Pinterest, artist unknown}}