White noise
doesn’t help me block out echoes of your lies
the color of your laughter
(On this day 6 years ago)
Tag Archives: poetry
Sanctuary
You are my place. My safe haven, the only home to all of my poetry.
You are the mystical embrace. You are my dark man’s space.
I have become so much more in the years. So much more than a girl who loves to write in her diaries.
I make diaries now.
It’s not weird, it’s classic. This is where the mind whirls and we only end up with cliches.
purr poetre
Yikes. You walk all the way from the mountains to the village to the city to your own bed where he says he fucks you hard
and then a therapist and a coffee café and another guy and some French and some toast and a shard
And then you come back to the room to the bed your parents got for you and a can of milk, a laptop brand new and you say
You cannot write?
What else do you want! — a life?
Muse
Years later when she asks herself,
who was he?
She can only say he was just a muse.
Years later when he asks himself,
who was she?
He can only say she was just a muse.
In a parallel world, they sit together
Hand in hand
More than just a muse.
Hello, safe space?
Hmm. Here because everyone else shunned ya out? Uh-oh. Okay, what brings you here where you’re not even real. But reality can be so scary, you know that already. Never judge anyone on fearing it. For not being their harmless-for-others untrue self.
Still so complicated, your sentences. Ew. Told you I didn’t like poetry. The f with you.
Acha what brings you here then? Go on, I’ll listen. Wow, ehsaan much.
I read this poem from twenty seventeen. Was going through my archives to find something to letter. I did pick a line from it that you see in the photo above. And then put the poem in the caption. Read it out:
Sometimes,
When I should be elsewhere
Inside Dreams,
I lay awake instead, and
Assemble a questionnaire in my mind:
Everything that I have now yearned too long to ask you, I would;
“This is going to be a very, very honest conversation,” I will say.
It’s our final friendly law.
A sudden surge of happiness like a reflection of seven colors on my sooted heart—
If you call me again I might at least find my name
And as we’re talking, I will ask— no harsh feelings, hey!— but why did you think it was okay to do what you did?
How many others have you scarred the same way?
Alas! In the back of my mind the colors shift
A curtain closes
Rubbing the drama away in one swift move:
How will I know if you won’t still be lying?
Idk if the ending feels as clear to me now. I remember knowing back then also that it was vague but for me the meaning was clear. How will I know if you wont still be lying, huh? Ajeeb matlab. Duh.
ANYWAY. I’m ranting to not think but I’m thinking all sorts of things. With so much speed that it’s hard to catch up. Painful that I can’t take your and your and your name. Matlab pagal hi bana diya.
Sigh. My bud-dua or yours? I remember this other poem — feels like another life when I wrote those but hey, — and it talked about the dua part will remain even after nothing else does. And then I think I mocked it in the same tone. I totally meant the mocking, you know? Because you’d think it’s a “good dua” while it might not be? And other meanings so f it too.
It’s such an important day I don’t want to use a wrong word. Especially when I’ve kept the decency salamat so far. eh tainting the image now? No please. Wont even dare.
Phew. All our issues and one. This late night. This needed apology. This lack of understanding. And not me. For once, I’m not the issue.
Maseeha Mazaq
Maseeha!
Tum ho ke mai?
Ye batain saari jhoot hain ya sachh? Kia pata sachh keh kar dhoka hojaye. Kia pata jhoot hi sara sachha ho?
Tum samajhtay rahay tum maseeha ho
Kia pata kuch anokha ye qissa ho
Kia pata tum jis talaash per niklay, mai uskey dusray siray pe kharay jab tumhara intizar kartay thak jaun tou tum se kaheen agaay nikal jaun.
Tum samajhtay rahogay mai palat aungi kyunke tumhe lagta hai tum maseeha ho
Mera Maseeha mujhay tor kar jor deta hai. Lekin tumhe kia dikhata hai? Jhoot? Ya sachh?
Kia pata Uski Maseehai tumhe bhi lag jaye. Kia pata tumhe maafi mil jaye
Kia pata kabhi tum mujhay maseeha samjho.
Kia pata tum is uljhan se kabhi na niklo
Aameen.
Hum
All of the songs
I sing
All of the words
I think
All of the art
I do
It was
Always
For you.
All of the time
that’s gone
All of the dreams
You took away
All of the flaws now
What do I do
It was
Always
For you
It was
Always
For you
Ode to Love
What do you want love to look like? I want mine to be free of fears so it is strong in and out, and something that is calming and positive and artistically spiritual like this painting but better because that would be a gift by the Master Painter if He so wills. 💙
Abuse
Could a poem cover it?
Nahee, no way. 26 letters in English and 52 or so in Urdu. Have you seen the black in abuse? IT’S A VAST SEA
IT’S NOT JUST A VAST SEA, oh please help me find a word greater than a sea. This is storm-in-a-sea, fast moving, all ending, utter utter utter blinding. Can you see the centre?
Oh fuxk. This is not a test. You don’t win if you tell the right metaphors.
Red blood, purple bruise, black eyes. We all know it. And your pitiful “bleeding” heart
Grow up. Grow out of this poem. Grow out of your “tearing” heart. No, not with more knife.
Abuse. Here, take this word. Will you lock yourself behind a washroom door or would you hold a blanket over your face so tight your knuckles would go white. Oh haha.
More colors. It smells of doom to me.
Shushhh. No more.
Heart of Gold
All black.
But how these streaks enfold.
There is light!
It’s a heart of gold.
God, is this where you meet?
Creation from Chaos
Bring me to my paint brushes when I am away from home.
Remind me of this freedom when I am crying of suffocation.
If my hand is pulling for a noose and my eyes are blinded by rushing streams
Gently hold me by my shoulders, guide me to art and silence,
And give me enough time.
I will hopefully carve out a creation out of chaos.
(I mean, actually inshaa Allah and aameen to that. It’s…like…an actual thing)
Were you a dream?
Or were you not? Will there be a way to find out?
Hashar uthay ga raaz khulay ga. Raaz khul gaya tou izzat rahegi?
Smiling there, standing tall. It’s only a moment’s time until you fall.
Heck that rhyme.
When poetry falls silent
Mushairon ko aag lag jayegi
Thunder songs and then: sannaata
THEN. Then silence will screech.
Erasure
I am erasing every remnant of you because:
a) it doesn’t matter anymore?
b) I hope it would stop mattering like this?
No edits.
It still means a cold hard blow
cold hard blow on the heart
like someone hammers it into pieces
while looking sideways
you’re so hurt yourself, you say
it was never intentional to reach
here. this
now
is our collective mistake. or something from the universe
if only you could stop right now
if only you could go back in time
one last time back in time one last —
you’d do it again.
You would.
Saying hi
this is a haiku
but it is not a haiku
what even, woman
Frozen
Aik bohat bara khait hai jahan faslain tezi se jhoom rahi hain. Taiz, taiz hawa me jesay urr rahi hun. Aur zindagi isi dagar pe dourr rahi hai. Yun jo fast motion pictures hoti hain na? Bilkul wesa hai sab, jhapak jhapak me aas paas badaltey badaltay sab aik lagnay lagta hai. Jahan se shuru hua tha nuqta waheen aa kar teherta hai. Aur ye khait, wasee o areez lehlahata jhoomta hawa me urta khait… aik khud se bhi bohat bari baraf ki sil me qaid hai.
Frozen in an ice cube. A gigantic ice cube.
So being frozen within something so huge that is frozen too, doesn’t feel much. Until the ice breaks.
I dread the breaking time.
the way to you
if difficulty is danger
and so is insecurity
anxiety-ish, that deep twist in the stomach,
if danger means this spikey knife
set in between (standing upright)
to pierce through my self-esteem,
self-confidence, self-whatmore
then the way to you is laced with danger
and I cannot miss the signs anymore
Love grows here
Between night-black and no star,
Cocooned by a quiet that is only suddenly broken sometimes
By a cricket’s cry.
Love lives here
Even when you don’t.
Diary of a 3:12 AM-er
Bohat arsay baad aik nazm likhnay lagi thi. Balkay likhnay kia lagi thi, wo nazm hi mujhay likh rahi thi. Unwaan tha ‘be-dili’. Aur phir pehla misra tumhe be-dili se sochnay par tha. Uskay bad aik khayal ata lekin shaam ke dhal janay aur khuwab ke ban janay ka darr… agay aik lafz kam reh gaya. Jo cigarette ka sar hota hai na? Usay masalna tha. Lekin na lafz aya na baat bani. Hath jo kehtay kehtay uper utha tha phir hawa me hi reh gaya. Bhai ne dekh kar poocha, “you are in love, right?” Mai munh bana ke reh gai.
I am in love, right? Duh I’m in love. With what, I don’t know. I am so disconnected from myself, or maybe I’m just so connected with myself that I’ve lost the ability to touch on the surface of things (or thoughts?) and say this is this and that is that. I can’t say these words are true. I can’t say they are not. I don’t know.
Kuch zamana beeta hai mai araam se nazmen likh sakti thi. Araam se tou nahi khair, jahan shairi hai wahan aaraam kahan. Magar phir bhi kabhi na kabhi. Aik khaas kefiyat hoti thi. Aisay tou mai pehlay kitabain bhi bohat parh leti thi ab arsa hua.
I just cannot. I haven’t read a proper book in a proper sitting like a proper reader since ages. The last was All the light we cannot see which is now in my taaaaaall pile of unfinished ones. I did translate a huge chapter though. It was on Islam and science and reason and modernism and everything like that. A good experience – both in terms of subject and skill.
It’s gonna be sehri time here. I made a fruit-oatmeal smoothie yesterday jiska oatmeal part no one liked and smoothie they all did. Lol. I heard it was healthy like that but I guess I’ll omit the oatmeal now.
Nah, I’m not much of a kitchen person. But it’s Ramadan, so… oh, happy Ramadan to you!
Letting go
Hello, you.
My friend texted me to say she saw me in a dream and misses me. I couldn’t help but feel awfully helpless remembering I saw you in a dream too. How I wish I could tell you.
I want you to know that it’s been immensely long but I am going strong, and yep, it’s because I crafted another challenge for myself of which already a large part has been spent but still, still your name comes up everyday in my mind, and though I’m trying, I cannot forget you enough because I heard enough means letting go.
Letting go means cutting open and slicing out a part I’ve kept so close.
It’s amazing how this is! Because there’s no real string (like a real tangible truth) binding these. These, as in, this thing in the heart and your place in the…heart? and the future that holds neither. Wow, what a thing to bear.
Hello, you.
The only way this can really reach you is when you claim it yourself. Which is another way of saying: agar wo pooch len hum se kaho kis baat ka gham hai// tou phir kis baat ka gham hai agar wo pooch lain hum se. Oh okay, I just added this one because it wouldn’t leave me otherwise. You get the point.
I sometimes search for you amid crowds When I write again it won’t be about you.
Randomly Abstract 