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Author: ALI, AGHA SHAHID
Matches Found: 106


Ali, Agha Shahid    Poet's Biography
106 poems available by this author


ABOVE THE CITIES       
First Line: Boston-frankfurt-delhi. Lufthansa airborne
Last Line: Son is me. Always


AFTER SEEING KOZINTSEV'S KING LEAR IN DELHI       
First Line: Lear cries out 'you are men of stones'


AFTER THE AUGUST WEDDING IN LAHORE, PAKISTAN       
First Line: We all -- save the couple! -- returned to pain
Last Line: Of the past? Of what shall I not sing, and sing


AND WHEN WE-AS IF FROM ASHES-ASCEND       
First Line: And when we-as if from ashes-ascend
Last Line: She had sung everyone will be here but I


AT THE MUSEUM    Poem Text    
First Line: But in 2500 b.C. Harrappa
Last Line: Came to harappa
Subject(s): Museums; Art Gallerys


AT THE MUSEUM       
First Line: But in 2500 b.C. Harappa
Last Line: Came to harappa


BEYOND THE ASH RAINS       
First Line: When the desert refused my history
Last Line: Out for loss in your arms, won't ever again %be exiled, never again, from your arms


BLESSED WORD: A PROLOGUE ON KASHMIR       
First Line: From an untitled poem, that opening line announces heartbreak
Last Line: Kashmiris will pronounce that word truly for the first time


BUTCHER       
First Line: In this lane %near jama masjid


BY THE WATERS OF THE SIND       
First Line: Is the sinking moon-like a prisoner
Last Line: How dare it shine on an earth %from which you have vanished?


CALL       
First Line: I close my eyes. It doesn't leave me


CHANDNI CHOWK, DELHI       
First Line: Swallow this summer street


CITY OF DAUGHTERS: A POEM ABOUT KASHMIR       
First Line: Who has flown in, pitiless, from the plains
Last Line: No longer targets for a kiss, but our lips open


CORRESPONDENT       
First Line: I say 'there's no way back to your country'
Last Line: What's left. He zooms madly into my shadow


COUNTRY WITHOUT A POST OFFICE       
First Line: Again I've returned to this country
Last Line: It rains as I write this. Mad heart, be brave


CRACKED PORTRAITS       
First Line: My grandfather's painted grandfather


CREMATION    Poem Text    
First Line: Your bones refused to burn
Last Line: You'd be stubborn in death?
Subject(s): Cremation


CREMATION       
First Line: Your bones refused to burn
Subject(s): Cremation


DACCA GAUZES       
First Line: Those transparent dacca gauzes
Last Line: It absently through her ring
Subject(s): Bangladesh; Weavers And Weaving


DEAR SHAHID       
First Line: I am writing to you from your far-off country. Far even from us
Last Line: All were in love and the rain was in our hands wherever we met


DEATH ROW       
First Line: Someone else in this world has been mentioning you
Last Line: He asked for the love of women


EVEN THE RAIN    Poem Text    
First Line: What will suffice for a true-love knot? Even the rain?
Last Line: No one has such small hands, shahid, not even the rain
Subject(s): Rain


EVENING IN THE ASYLUM       
First Line: Silent %in her chair


EXIT TO CALCUTTA       
First Line: When on route 80 in ohio
Last Line: The cars are urns %carrying ashes to the sea


FAREWELL       
First Line: At a certain point I lost track of you
Last Line: What would not have been possible in the world


FATE OF THE ASTROLOGER SITTING ON THE PAVEMENT       
First Line: Pay, pay attention to the sky'


FATE'S BRIEF MEMOIR       
First Line: A fate -- ask the stars! -- gives no interviews
Last Line: From your breath beloved! This evening fades


FIRST DAY OF SPRING       
First Line: On this perfect day, perfect for forgetting god
Last Line: Are still bringing me word from (could it be?) from god


FLIGHT FROM HOUSTON IN JANUARY       
First Line: Both sides of the sky


FLOATING POST OFFICE       
First Line: Has he been kept from us? Portents
Last Line: Canals, tense waters no one can close


FOOTNOTE TO HISTORY       
First Line: On the banks of the indus
Last Line: Caravans ambushed by %forests on fire


GHAZAL    Poem Text    
Last Line: Read slowly: the plot will unfold in real time
Subject(s): Death; Transience; Dead, The; Impermanence


GHAZAL (1)       
First Line: But first the screened mirror, all I knew of water
Last Line: He's deluxed in the leather who's who of water


GHAZAL (2)    Poem Text    
First Line: The beloved will leave you behind from the start
Subject(s): Love


GHAZAL (2)       
First Line: The beloved will leave you behind from the start
Last Line: The forever shahid's countersigned
Subject(s): Love


GHAZAL (3)       
First Line: The only language of loss left in the world is arabic
Last Line: They ask me to tell them what shahid means-- %listen: it means 'the beloved' in persian, 'witness' I


GHAZAL (4)       
First Line: Where are you now? Who lies beneath your spell tonight
Last Line: God sobs in my arms. Cal me ishmael tonight


GHAZAL (5)       
First Line: Rumors of spring -- they last from dawn till dusk
Last Line: This rumor the beloved shares our pain


GHAZAL (6)       
First Line: I'll do what I must if I'm bold in real time
Last Line: Read slowly: the plot will unfold in real time
Subject(s): Time


GHAZAL FOR MICHAEL PALMER       
First Line: Did we run out of things or just a name for you?
Last Line: Don't pronounce the sentence shahid overcame for you


GLASS BANGLES       
First Line: Those autumns my parents slept %warm in a quilt studded
Last Line: Inside the burning house %a widow smashing the rivers %on her arms
Variant Title(s): A Dream Of Glass Bangle


HANS CHRISTIAN OSTRO       
First Line: And those defunct trains -- kashmir mail
Last Line: Goodbye and goodbye


HEAVY HORS D'OEUVRES       
First Line: How to reduce history's variety into a compelling
Last Line: I have a profound respect for desperation. %and you are?


HISTORY OF PAISLEY       
First Line: You who will find the dark fossils of paisleys
Last Line: Turn to see her -- on the peaks -- in rapid flight forever


HOMAGE TO FAIZ AHMED FAIZ       
First Line: You wrote this from beirut, two years before


HOUSES       
First Line: The man who buries his house in the sand


I DREAM I AM THE ONLY PASSENGER ON FLIGHT 423 TO SRINAGAR       
First Line: And when we -- as if from ashes -- ascend
Last Line: Or flames clinging to a torched village


I DREAM I RETURN TO TUCSON IN THE MONSOONS       
First Line: And on a deserted street run


I DREAM IT IS AFTERNOON WHEN I RETURN TO DELHI       
First Line: At purana qila I am alone, waiting


I SEE CHILE IN MY REARVIEW MIRROR    Poem Text    
First Line: This dream of water - what does it harbor?
Last Line: The waters darken. The continent vanishes
Subject(s): Earth; World


I SEE CHILE IN MY REARVIEW MIRROR       
First Line: This dream of water - what does it harbor?
Last Line: The waters darken. The continent vanishes
Subject(s): Earth


I SEE KASHMIR FROM NEW DELHI AT MIDNIGHT       
First Line: One must wear jeweled ice in dry plains
Last Line: With gods asleep like children in their arms


I, TOO, WAS LIEGE/ TO RAINBOWS CURRYING       
Last Line: (bloody mary had loved the smoke of protestant bones)


IN MARBLE    Poem Text    
First Line: Because there's no thyme or fenugreek in marble
Last Line: Is yet another heartbreaking greek in marble
Subject(s): Marble


IN MEMORY OF BEGUM AKHTAR       
First Line: Your death in every paper


IN THE MOUNTAINS       
First Line: Somewhere %without me


JOGGER ON RIVERSIDE DRIVE, 5:00 A.M.       
First Line: The dark scissors of his legs %cut the moon's
Last Line: From the air, from himself, %his heart beating far, far %behind him
Subject(s): Sports; Track Athletics


KEEPER OF THE DEAD HOTEL       
First Line: In one room upstairs
Last Line: The moon splashed everywhere
Subject(s): Hotels


LAND    Poem Text    
First Line: Swear by the olive in the godf-kissed land
Last Line: Are shahid’s arms broken, o promised land?
Subject(s): Social Commentaries; Islam


LAND       
First Line: Swear by the olive in the god-kissed land
Last Line: Are shahid's arms broken, o promised land?


LAST SAFFRON       
First Line: I will die, in autumn, in kashmir
Last Line: It is this, it is this, it is this


LEAVING SONORA       
First Line: Certain landscapes insist on fidelity


LEAVING YOUR CITY       
First Line: In the midnight bar


LENOX HILL    Poem Text    
First Line: The hun so loved the cry, one falling elephant's
Last Line: When I remember you – beyond all accounting o my mother?
Subject(s): Loss; Moving & Movers; Refugees; United States - Immigration & Emigtration


LENOX HILL       
First Line: The hun so loved the cry, one falling elephant's
Last Line: When I remember you-beyond all accounting-o my mother?
Subject(s): Loss; Moving And Movers; Refugees; U.s. - Immigration And Emigration


LO, A TINT CASHMERE! LO, A ROSE!       
First Line: There was another summer: we were listening to radio
Last Line: The garden and I am dead and I must have done good for god to grant me this world of flowers


LOST MEMORY OF DELHI       
First Line: I am not born
Last Line: Hear me they won't hear %my knocking drowning out %the tongue of stars


MEMOIR       
First Line: You didn't throw away


MONSOON NOTE ON OLD AGE       
First Line: This is fifty years later: I


MUHARRAM IN SRINAGAR, 1992       
First Line: Death flies in, thin bureaucrat, from the plains
Last Line: Death comes -- thin bureaucrat -- from the plains


NEW DELHI AIRPORT       
First Line: Haze of april heat. We are on the tarmac
Last Line: Soon we climb the ramp, and the sky is empty %once we are airborne


NOSTALGIST'S MAP OF AMERICA       
First Line: The trees were soon hushed in the resonance
Last Line: Seen disappearing down a route of veins %in an electric rush of cochineal'


OF LIGHT    Poem Text    
First Line: At dawn you leave. The river wears its skin of light
Last Line: From every tomb I'll learn all we imagine of light
Subject(s): Light


OF LIGHT       
First Line: At dawn you leave. The river wears its skin of light
Last Line: From every tomb I'll learn all we imagine of light


PASTORAL       
First Line: We shall meet again, in srinagar
Last Line: To get news of our death after the world's


PHILADELPHIA, 2:00 A.M.       
First Line: All routes to death


PHOTOGRAPH IN SEDONA       
First Line: What am I doing


POSTCARD FROM KASHMIR       
First Line: Kashmir shrinks into my mailbox


PRAYER RUG    Poem Text    
Last Line: She weeps holding on / to the pillars
Subject(s): Prayer Rugs


PRAYER RUG       
First Line: Those intervals


PREVIOUS OCCUPANT       
First Line: The landlady says he lived here


PURSE-SEINER ATLANTIS       
First Line: Black pacific, 'shahid, come here, quick.' a ship
Last Line: Chilled necklaces, lost continents, casks of wine


RETURN TO HARMONY 3       
First Line: Two summers? Epochs, then, of ice
Last Line: And the cry coming faded from its empty rooms is my cry


SEASON OF THE PLAINS       
First Line: In kashmir, where the year


SNOW ON THE DESERT       
First Line: Each ray of sunshine is eight minutes old'


SNOWMEN    Poem Text     Recitation
First Line: My ancestor, a man
Last Line: On their melting shoilders
Subject(s): Ancestors & Ancestry; Heritage; Heredity


SNOWMEN       
First Line: My ancestor, a man


SOME VISION OF THE WORLD CASHMERE       
First Line: But the phone rings, here in amherst: your grandmother
Last Line: Merciful, god is compassionate


SON ET LUMIERE AT SHALIMAR GARDEN       
First Line: Brahma's voice is torn water
Last Line: Another dynasty's bloody arms


STANZAS SHAPED BY A GHALIB GHAZAL       
First Line: Not all, only a few
Last Line: Your terraced cities, %your marbled palaces


STATIONARY       
First Line: The moon did not become the sun


STORY OF A SILENCE       
First Line: While her husband


SUMMERS OF TRANSLATION       
First Line: Memory'-two years after your death they tell me-has
Last Line: Mother, %you are 'the breath drawn after every line'


SURVIVOR       
First Line: Someone lives in my house


THE DACCA GAUZES    Poem Text    
First Line: Those transparent dacca gauzes
Last Line: It absently through her ring
Subject(s): Bangladesh; Weaving & Weavers


THE JOGGER ON RIVERSIDE DRIVE, 5:00 A.M.    Poem Text    
First Line: The dark scissors of his legs / cut the moon's
Last Line: His heat beating, far, far / behind him
Subject(s): Running & Runners


THE KEEPER OF THE DEAD HOTEL    Poem Text    
First Line: In one room upstairs
Last Line: The moon splashed everywhdre
Subject(s): Hotels; Inns; Innskeepers; Motels; Boarding Houses


THE WOLF'S POSTSCRIPT TO 'LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD'    Poem Text    
First Line: First, grant me my sense of history
Last Line: Should have come to an end
Subject(s): Fictional Characters; Wolves; Children's Literature


THERE IS NO GOD BUT    Poem Text    
First Line: In the 'name of the merciful' let night begin
Last Line: In no one's name but hers I let night begin
Subject(s): Death; God; Mourning; Dead, The; Bereavement


TIGER AT 4:00 A.M.       
First Line: Something waits


TONIGHT    Poem Text    
First Line: Where are you now? Who lies beneath your spell tonight?
Last Line: God sobs in my arms. Call me ishmael tonight
Subject(s): Religion; Theology


VACATING AN APARTMENT    Poem Text    
First Line: Efficient as fate
Last Line: I'm moving out holding tombstones in my hands
Subject(s): Transience; Death; Landlords & Tenants; Impermanence; Dead, The


VACATING AN APARTMENT       
First Line: Efficient as fate


VILLANELLE       
First Line: When the ruins dissolve like salt in water
Last Line: Blood falters; then swirled to roses, it salts the slaughter


WHERE I KNELT, SELS       
First Line: Sudden god, his head's on my melting shoulder
Last Line: Owns, and he's its message to me, awake, his %hair on my shoulder


WRONG TURN       
First Line: In my dream I'm always