Free Verses

Free Verses by Nasir Aijaz from Sindh, Pakistan

 

The Whispers of Indus River

Rambling along the banks of Indus River

I heard the whisperings.

"I'm the river, once called the Mighty Indus"

"Have a look at me. Am I still the Mighty?"

Sand dunes have emerged in my wide riverbed

Whirlwinds are there

Where once used to be whirlpools.

 

Look around you O' man

You will see the withering leaves

Of dried up trees

And the wilting plants

Across the farmlands

The humans and animals

Wandering for the water

To quench their thirst.

 

Don't you know O’ man?

The groundwater has

Turned arsenic

The forests and wildlife are fast vanishing

The entire ecosystem has been destroyed

In my lower riparian region

Creating the food insecurity

Posing the threat of a famine-like situation.

 

It was me, the Mighty Indus

Which gave birth to a great civilization

People worshiped my jewel-blue stream

While I hopped over the rocks happily

Emanating from the Himalayas

Flowing down thousands of kilometers

Traversing the mountains and plains

To meet the Sindhu Sagar, the Ocean

And the Rig-Veda, ancient Vedic Sanskrit hymns

Were composed sitting at my banks.

 

Are you listening to my whispers O’ man?

It was me, the Mighty Indus

That flowed down splashing

And curving gently through the forests along my banks

The people used to come for pilgrimage

And take a drink finding my water very refreshing.

The aroma of the forest was great.

Have a look at me, the Mighty River - the lifeline

Of hundreds of millions of souls  

But you will now find only a dried up river.

 

Listen to me O’ man!

Scientists say, the glaciers are melting fast

Due to global warming

Causing the floods in the rivers.

If, it’s so,

Why there are no floods?

And the drought prevails in the lower riparian region

My Delta has been destroyed and the Ocean is intruding

Devastating the fertile lands and crops

And causing the extinction of marine life

Snatching the source of livelihood of millions of souls.

 

Let me tell you the truth O’ man!

The avaricious humans have built dams and barrages

And the Link Canals upstream

To block my flow towards the Ocean

And cultivate their own lands

Despite knowing they are working

Against the nature, ravaging this part of planet

But unknowing that the Nature will retaliate one day

And ruin them too.


***

Unrequited Love 

Nightingale sings the melodious songs at night

For her longing, love, and connection to the moon

Being a symbol of life, hope, eternity, and love,

The peace, prosperity, and reunion with loved-one.

 

Deep into full moon night,

Chakor too sheds its tears in longing,

Releasing the song of unrequited passion,

For its alluring beloved - the moon

Unattainable high in the skies.

He takes flight in a bid to meet the moon

But falls back to earth before the day break.

 

The love of Nightingale, and the Chakor

For the moon, remains unrequited

The moon itself shines by reflecting sunlight

Continuing its journey

Unaware of the loving birds of planet Earth. 

 

So is my love for

The nature, people, humanity, cultures

And languages of the world.

Unlike the Nightingale and Chakor

I don't wait for the full moonlight

And sing the songs of love and peace all the time

Being first and the last love of my life

No matter it's unrequited.

(Poet’s note: As per Asian myth, deep into the full moon night, the Chakor or Chakur bird, also called Pheasant or Hill Partridge in English, takes failed flight to moon)    

***


Dreams of Revolution and Freedom

What is the significance of dreams seen after sleep?

Dreams should be those that do not let you sleep.

I also keep seeing such dreams, like an old saying, 

Dreams of economic, social revolution and national unity

That have not allowed me to sleep all my life.

But despite not realizing it in seven decades,

I have not stopped seeing such dreams.

Some of them are lying under the bed in my place, on which I sleep with my head every day,

Some of them are kept in the small cupboard next to it,

And some of them are lying between the pages of books.

Every night by opening the closet, laying my head on the bed or opening a book,

I go back to the world of these dreams.

______________  



About Nasir Aijaz
Journalist, Author, Researcher and Poet

Nasir Aijaz, based in Karachi, the capital of Sindh province of Pakistan, is basically a journalist and researcher having spent over 48 years in the field of journalism. He won Gold Medal and another award for best reporting in 1988 and 1989. He has worked in key position of editor for newspapers and news agencies. He also worked as a TV Anchor (For Pakistan Television) for over a decade and conducted some 400 programs from 1982 to 1992 besides appeared as analyst in several programs on private TV channels. He also did dozens of programs on Radio Pakistan and some other private Radio channels. He is author of nine books on history, language, literature, travelogue and biography. One of his books ‘Hur – The Freedom Fighter’, a research work on war against the British colonial forces, also won a prize. Some of his other books are unpublished. Further, he translated a poetry book of Egyptian poet Ashraf Aboul Yazid, into Sindhi language, which was published in Egypt. Besides, he has written around 500 articles in English, Urdu and Sindhi, the native language of Sindh. He is editor of Sindh Courier, an online magazine and represents The AsiaN, an online news service of South Korea with regular contribution for eleven years. His articles have also been translated in Arabic and Korean languages. Some of his English articles were published in Singapore and India and Nigeria. He writes poetry in his native language Sindhi, and English. Very recently, some of his poems have been translated in Albanian, Italian and Greek languages and published there besides in Arabic language published in Egypt and Abu Dhabi. His English poems have also been published in Bangladesh, Kosovo, USA, Tajikistan, Greece, Italy and some other countries. Nasir Aijaz is one of the founding members of Korea-based Asia Journalists Association AJA. He has visited some ten Asian countries and attended international seminars.