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Friday, 27 February 2009

Crocuses


My father knows when
the crocuses are out

and when the snowdrops
and when the bluebells

and how to listen, carefully,
to the nesting birds,
trilling
between our rooms.

Daisies will come
and roses will grow

and perhaps we shall walk
and reminisce about the snow

and kick up some leaves
and weave up some dreams

while the world passes by
my father and I.


artwork: Father's painting of Crocuses, Spring '66

9 comments:

  1. sounds like you have a close relationship with your father :)
    How's it going with you?

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  2. I know that it is only February (I am writing this comment on the 1st March) but to me this is a spring poem. It's delicate and thoughtful. I can imagine you and your father walking along the blossoming dandelions, in silence, and suddenly uttering a word at the same time and smiling at each other embarrassedly and saying: 'You go first'. Beautiful.

    Greetings from London.

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  3. wow. you and your father's work together make some magic.

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  4. Lovely, both your words and your father's painting. Thinking of you.
    Catherine

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  5. Love this poem. Has impact even when you don't know that he can't see.

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  6. hey there..... love the idea of you and your dad, in that world of yours, unfettered by the things outside, everything changes but your world with your father will always be the same... be well... thinking of you always little sister..... come visit us in singapore soon....

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  7. Hello Shaista,

    Your poem brought to mind this one - and others - by e e cummings:

    i thank You God for most this amazing
    day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
    and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
    wich is natural which is infinite which is yes

    (i who have died am alive again today,
    and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
    day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
    great happening illimitably earth)

    how should tasting touching hearing seeing
    breathing any-lifted from the no
    of all nothing-human merely being
    doubt unimaginable You?

    (now the ears of my ears awake and
    now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

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  8. Hello its me, I am finally here. Can i join you and pa on your walk? i will hold your hand and say something silly and make you laugh. i promise. then we can come back in and mum can make us all a nice cup of tea. riz will be upstairs on the computer and then he will come down and the house will be full of laughter again.

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  9. I'm in the office reading your poetry, and just wanted to congratulate you for making me cry. In Bucketloads :)

    Your poetry is truly touching...

    I once wrote a poem for my parents that I'd like to dedicate to you today:

    "We are everything and everywhere"

    To the call of my roots I arise
    to a sticky evening on a bed of fine imagined silk

    Mosaics of cool blue provide the only refreshment
    For mint is welcome but not yet to be seen

    A deep drum resonates of empty spaces
    of grains of sand counting infinity,
    falling into vastness in effortless affinity

    Colours of sun-dried crimson surround me
    those of drapes dancing to the whims of a sirocco

    The smell of wet earth and cinnamon permeate me
    A vague of Rose water is lightly sprinkled over me

    I sit here listening to this deep ominous sound
    That of thunder above a congregation of black clouds

    The call of the far-away muezzin is timely
    It embodies heavenly and earthly beauty
    of deserts so vast as to shatter any certainty

    The wind is here and everything seems to be whirling
    The dervishes must be out practicing
    To the dizzying rhythms of moon, earth, and sun setting

    All things still and living have now merged
    of the harmony and unity that is all around

    If one only knows to look,
    to listen, to smell, to feel, to dream
    Then the sadness of being far from home begins to disappear

    For there needs be no barriers…
    Earth is earth…
    Wind is wind…
    Sky is sky…
    Sea is sea…
    Light is light…

    They simply change colour and tune to tease us
    to uniquely sculpt you and I into the world that is us

    I know we’re far but all I need to do is look, listen, smell and feel
    to make sure there is always a meeting place for you and I in my dream


    x
    Meriem

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