Handmaiden Magic

_{^{Handmaiden Magic, Erasure Poem #81, gel pen & acrylic on paper, 2022, © N Nazir 2023, Sketchbooks 2023
(Text source: One Thousand Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, p.284)}}

ceremonies of love,

Me with blue hair,

and needle and thread,

sewing a shroud of dusk.

Shared for Poets and Storytellers United where Magaly invites us to respond to the theme of Unfinished Projects.

*As you can see, whilst the poem is finished, the painting is not. I have many erasure poems in a similar state and sometimes I leave them that way. It’s like I’ve caught them in a state of undress.

*My hair is actually purple at the moment. Ultra Violet, it said on the bottle. More like aubergine.

Wordless Wednesday

_{^{Eurydice Reaching for the Light, watercolour & biro on watercolour paper, Sketchbooks 2021, N. Nazir 2021}}

Time Suspended- #Publication

_{Time Suspended-, gel pen & biro on paper, 2022, © N Nazir 2023, Sketchbooks 2022
(Text source: A Primer for Poets & Readers of Poetry by Gregory Orr, p.104)}

I, sleepless,
feel the ripening swell
of unrest.

Is it loneliness?
or am I shifting again

*

I meant to share this earlier. I had an unexpected publication with Ink Sweat and Tears last month with my word + image poem Time Suspended-. I’d submitted it months ago so to get an acceptance quite out of the blue, and on Eid too, was a pleasant surprise. Especially when it’s an erasure piece as not many journals publish those. Hope you like it.

I started doodling this during an overly long zoom meeting last year, the host of which probably thought I was earnestly making notes. Not so. I was poeming the whole time. It’s the little things in life, isn’t it?

*

*Unrelated but what sad news about the powerhouse that was the inimitable Tina Turner. I know this isn’t one of her songs but I had trouble picking one to share, and I love her performance here with Robert Palmer. RIP Tina ❤

My Latest Puddles #Wordless Wednesday

Unmoored #Publication

_{Unmoored, watercolour & gel pen on paper, © N Nazir 2023, Sketchbooks 2023
(Text source: The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, p.80-81)}

He smiled
then asked me
where do you belong?

Who knows,
I replied
I am not lost
and yet
it seems that I am.

*

My greatest thanks to Free Verse Revolution for publishing my erasure poem Unmoored for their latest issue Anchor IX (page 38). You can download a free digital copy here, or purchase a print copy via the Lulu store.

They also published a painting of mine, Two Ships Passing on a Lonesome Night, which you can view on page 41. It’s a lovely issue and it’s so pleasing to have the clean white pages punctuated with my artwork. I hope you like them! 🙂

*

(*For enquiring minds: I just want to confirm that all my work is hand-drawn and painted down to every last detail (usually onto photocopy paper which has been pasted down onto watercolour or craft paper) and I never use digital tools to enhance my work in any way. I don’t believe the artwork should need it. When I photograph my work, I try and ensure it looks as close to the original as possible).