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Discover our poem explanations - click here!Searching... 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 |
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