Amjad Islam Amjad Poems

A Kind Star

Many a moon lost in mist
Some kept awake, dozed off
Except a kind star
From evening till daybreak

Like a night of pleasure
An undefinable joy
A fragrant dialogue
Stayed with me
Stays with me____!!

A Poem Of  Love

If perchance, you ever remember how we were
Then in the soft glow of same moonlight
Cast a glance at a shining star

And if that star
Travels the wasteland of space
and falls to your feet

Know, it was an image of my heart.
And if the star stays on high

But then it is inconceivable
That you cast a glance at anything

But that it would splinter and crack
Lose its being

If perchance, you ever remember how we were
Place a soft hand on the passing breeze

I shall be there in wafted scents
Search me in petals of rose

In wee mirrors of dewdrops I'll be there

And if you fail to find me in
In stars, wafted scents, rosepetals, dewdrops
Just look down at your feet

You will find me there
Circling in ceaseless journey to reach you

If ever you see a brightlit lamp
With circling moths daring open flame

Know, I too have been reduced to ashes
Like many of them

Pick up that dust, and fling it
In some passing river

The dust of me shall ride the waters
Travel the seas, and come to rest

On some unseen island
Cry out for you

And if you ever voyage out
Do grace that distant island____!!

Beware, Now That You Have Left Your Homes

So said the Breezes addressing those departing
"To search for the long departed is certainly a futile effort
For who has ever found the traces of the long departed!
You, who wander about the darkness
Carrying shimmering lamps in your eyes
Oul tell us,
Has anything ever sprouted from dead earth!"

Ruined by an eternally secure nature
Paths of imagination tell tales
Of the precious footsteps of the long departed
Arouse hopes of union
Mingling with the verdant smell of roselike bodies
By the living knock of their quiet rustlings

Were you to ask about the abodes
Of those passionate faces, questioning eyes

Those paths of imagination peer at you
As though words:
Have been severed from their meanings
And utterances:
Have clustered in the ambiguous whirlwind of anonymity
So said the journeys addressing those departing
"Travel is an ocean of trials and afflictions
It is entirely a whirlpool
The gait of the long departed is
Nothing more than the vagaries of desert winds
Unaware of its waystations
It is a mirage
More credible than clear vision.
Every spectacle is a tunic of perishing colours, as
failures and dreams go hand in hand"
So said the Stars, addressing those departing
"But the longing to rekindle previous friendship
Is the path to union
The new word derives vitality from the
Reappearance of timeworn letters

Beware, now that you have left your homes,
Stasis is:
decadence, demise of existence
Quest is eternal fire of eyes
The path to the unseen destination
Is illumined by those who have long departed___!!

Echo

It was a similar winter eve
When she, henna, rich on her palms
Blushed face partly in red
Came to ask for her letters back
Silent pleas in her bewildered eyes
Face, pale with the shadows of unknown fear
Then, with the letters clenched in her fist
Drowned in reflections of past
She leaned on my shoulder and cried
Untold stories of the times gone-by
On the trembling edges of crimson lips
Even today, often on the winter eves
The silent scene of her parting
Flashes in my tearful eyes
And a moment of henna rich hand beckons
It was a similar winter eve_____!!

For Habib Jaalib

Eyes that nurtured dreams
About the oppressed
Of the earth are closed
Where are the hands
With blood in every pore
That wrote about light

Snuffed out in time's
Fireplace is voice
Whose each timbre
Had tongues of fire

His spirit of inquiry
Endures : "How can
Fettered feet dance?

How can peace and
Oppression co-exist?"

His poems rejected
Each act of oppression

He sang about freedom
For the down trodden
Betterment of humanity

The crazed vagabond, Jalib
Leaves the world

Spread your arms my country
My soil, your poet is here___!!

For Parveen's Son

My moon-faced nephew
Eyes which had dreamt
Only about you are shut

After many a dream
And crossing oases
She got you, your love

You the fragrance
For which she rejected
The garden's bounties

In a field of marigolds
She talked to herself

Her hues lent colour
To your life

Geetu, epitome of
Her every dream
‘The glory of full moon'
Under heaps of earth
Lies the intellect
Whose voice teemed with moons
Whose poetry, a repository
Of youthful dreams
Won masters' enconiums

Yes, my moon-like nephew
One whom we buried was
Not only your mother
But voice of an age

Her work infused the
World with fragrance

She who on a
Voyage of fragrance
Was tormented by flowers' plight

In a cascading
Surge of recognition who knew
She will leave us all
And be topped by earth
And disintegrate quietly____!!

I Have to Find My Star

In the emptiness
Of skies, filled with
Innumerable stars
I have to find the
Star that belongs
To me
Galaxies beyond galaxies, filled with wonder
I know no name, nor a sign do I remember
All I remember
That on the very first morn
When thestars embarked
Through early light of dawn
Through the vastness of skies
Another star glittered
In her wondering eyes
Similar to that star
I too carry a dream in my tearful eyes
Embellish it with tears like stars in the skies
And keep on waiting
For you to pass by_____!!

Lost things, they say
Are sometimes found
In the same amalgmation
Of dust, where once
They were lost
I too have to find the
Star that belongs to me_______!!

Impossible

How eyes can control dreams
Rainbow hues quiver
Same scenes appear
Different to each eye
As innumerable oases
Exist in desert
Or a thought acquires
Limitless shapes___!!