Embers! ! ! Poem by Shahzia Batool
Embers! ! !
Whatever cool,
calm and serene was there in life,
it was there only when they were alive
my parents!
Life was life
worthy and worth-living
and now when they are no more
it has become a compulsion
and an obligation
'how time flies when one has fun'
and how it stops,
gets static to the limits of suffocation
when the essence of life is just taken out of it.
When they were there with me
with all there being shedding all affections
life was easy;
now when they are no more,
death has become easy.
Death is no parting,
as is assumed,
for they say
meeting with the dead and gone
is much much possible,
the bare fact is that
though i cant see them
but it's gratifying enough
that at least they can see me;
they are not going to come,
but i'm expected to go and meet them
sooner or later
What is Death?
an antonym of life? ,
a law of nature? ,
a parting-agent marking a line of separation
between the living and the dead? ,
or a divine order?
whatever it is, it's not strong enough
even to create a few seconds worth separation of us
from our dear ones.
They are more close to us,
we are more close to them.
'our dead are never dead to us
untill we have forgotten them.'
Life without them is like a tedious journey
barefoot under the rotten sun
O! for the faces
that are gone and hidden
within the entrails of the sodden ground!
O! for the precious lives
that are vanished
and slipped out of our hands
like grains of sand
the death-angel WAS there
in our own house
and no suspicion, no fear
since the grip on life was that strong but
at that very moment,
the string that held us together broke down
Nothing is left now
but grief, grief and a long-lasting emptiness
which will never come to an end...
Regrets...
for the calls not responded,
regrets...
for the moments not spent with those
whose eyes just looked forward for the company...
'Death! be not proud! '
if you were really a mighty being,
you would take the memories with you too,
but here you are not strong
rather very weak;
now did you get to know your worth?
Death, you cant kill.
you can hide aface but
not the memories of that face
that i cherish
and will keep on cherishing
forever;
my still hot
unextinguished embers of love
will never be cooled down,
though i'm alive
but the life has lost its colours!
Shahzia, what a poignant and touching write with parents gone! I t seems to mirror my very feelings and I feel I could have written the poem! I couldn't complete reading it without tears! Such a powerful poem which squeezes the heart! Thanks for sharing!
May there soul in rest & peace (aamin) ...the subject of a poem is very touching & full of sorrow, a bitter reality everyone have to go sooner or later, a positive attitude towards death....brilliant.
I would say you have chosen a very strong subject. I will call this piece, a Maxim. Every line is so true and more importantly it reflects the love of a daughter for her parents. Indeed your parents would be proud of you as I keep saying I am proud of your brilliance. I loved the use of but where optimism has replaced sadness. May Your Parents be in Peace. Perfect theme, Marvelous subject and beautifully written by a Brilliant writer.
We have to take everything that life throws at us and death of a loved one is the hardest thing to cope with. Have a read of my Sonnet XIV, it is similar.
life is difficult after the death of a love one. they continue on in our minds.
death can only take the physical, but can never touch love, thoughts and memories.
The rather lengthy and drawn out rendering is at once an emotive work and a jarring reminder of the vagaries of life and death. The inevitability of the grim reapers call…. Can we, can any one, ever grow out of the trauma of the loss of loved ones. Perceptions here take on a religious and accepted route of expression, the poet has a found a comfortable and easy way out to articulate the much needed and pent up sentiments….a catharsis of sorts. Free verse is well! Free and devoid of any restrictions in as much as we encounter in structured classical and traditional forms. I feel the meandering and off handed approach here, has added to the emotive strength of the poem and has supplemented rather then subtracted from its otherworldly pain. It is written almost in a crazed daze, a delusional incubus, only the one suffering can achieve that state of thrashing trance of anguish Content wise and contextually moving lines. and a * for Jasmeen for picking out the embellishment.
I lost both of my parents when I was young, so I have spent most of my life without them. I understand fully the feelings you express here Shahzia. Very well written.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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4/19/2024 11:18:21 PM # 1.0.0.1119
the moments live, , come alive, , and i join you and Donne is sympathizing with poor 'death'/// this long poem actually reads like 2 poems, the first part, , remembering the parents, , , , ' that at least they can see me; they are not going to come, ''' so much positivism about death, , thanx, , ,