Ayaz Rasool Nazki (Voices Within)

Multilingual poet, Ayaz Rasool Nazki has diverse interests in literature and arts. Ayaz has carved out his own distinctive niche in the literary world, voicing a sensibility that is at once postmodern and traditional. His dominant passion is creatively engaging with identity, memory and aspirations in South Asia’s most sensitive and turbulent zone – Kashmir. A recognized poet in Urdu and Kashmiri, he broke into English with a translation of his father Mir Ghulam Rasool Nazki’s Sufi quatrains. His own collection of English poems ‘songs of light’ was published to critical acclaim. His English novel Satisar-the valley of demons appeared recently.
Not a speck

I will sing a lullaby tonight
and lull my senses
in to sleep.
I will keep an angel’s vigil
and guide my soul
in to deep.
I will burn my body,
 collect my ashes
into heap.
Scatter them atop
the hills of faith,
across the meadows
 of belief;
not a speck
shall I keep.


No more

Fortifications crumble
Embankments give way
Fort walls are breached
Watch towers are debris
My armor is shattered
Bruised and battered
Time to remove the broken shield
Time to throw the helmet away
Let the raining arrows dig in to flesh
Let the flashing spear lodge in to ribs
Let the dazzling dagger
find the heart
I can’t take it any more!

Our new date

Rejoice my fairy land!
for we have a date with destiny
when after this long and dark night
you rise to a new silver dawn
when birds sing to your song
when bees hum to your tune
when butterflies dance to your beat
when silver brooks toss around
when flowers bloom in every nook
when gazelles dart across the vale
when I give you a hairdo
and strew narcissus between your locks
when you put on your Sunday best
and I stich plumes to your cap
when saffron petals kiss your feet
together hand in hand

we shall walk to our date

Voices Within-2020 :: Setu, February 2020

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