Omer Tarin Poems
A collection of select Omer Tarin famous poems that were written by Omer Tarin or written about the poet by other famous poets. PoetrySoup is a comprehensive educational resource of the greatest poems and poets on history.
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by
Omer Tarin
I. You are not dead
Why do they call you
Mohen-jo-daro,
“ Mounds-of-the-Dead”?
You are not dead!
You have never been dead
Or buried
Or cremated
By the scorching banks of the Sindhu;
Historians have conspired against you
A thousand and one tales
Have besmirched your name
Misguided fools have imagined
Your obituary to be true;
Sentimental fools have sung elegies
By their own graves
Garlanded their own biers,
Cursed the stars and howled...Read more of this...
by
Omer Tarin
Tonight on the veranda
I behold
The crystalline hilltops
Sublimate into an avalanche
Of snowflakes, in turn
Dissolving into the haze
Of silent mists;
Trees stand frozen
Like stiff soldiers
Mantled in unstirring ranks
Braced for some dire consequence
Ill-defined;
A wolf’s eldritch howl
Echoes
And night-birds trill their alarm
As the sickle moon
Glides away behind its many veils;
Owl-flights haunt
My dreams now
And your long green hair
Bewilders me with witchcraft.
(Omer Tarin, Selected Poems, 2005) ...Read more of this...
by
Omer Tarin
Once before I've heard this
anguished cry
A long-drawn note of many-lettered woe,
The great open beak straining
against the roar of raging surf;
Head, thrown back, taut
against the distant sails
Anger flickering in eyes flecked with amber,
rolling in lonely knowledge,
this bond servant of the sea,
tied by its giant wingspan
to the torturous flight of sainthood
Martyred
in its terrible existence
murdered
by the yellow fog of banality
Victim
to...Read more of this...
by
Omer Tarin
Had I seen the ghosts of this place
They would dance their victory dance;
Glorious vale
Cup, chalice,
Basin;
The glacial streams
Empty into that lake
Quiet, ever so silent,
Rippling lyre, reflection;
Snows and rocks frame it —
I have no words
Only emotions
Which boil and rise
With the thunder of horses,
The sound of stick
And ball thudding
Across the turf;
The ghosts of this place,
Had I but seen them,
Pale as the snow
Cold as...Read more of this...
by
Omer Tarin
You asked me what it was all about,
Why men and women dwelt so much
On the slanting tangents
Of come vague philosophy
And what I felt it was, and why
It was like this?
Sometimes, then, to answer your questions,
I dress my thoughts in brilliant costumes,
Beautiful, eloquent words,
But to tell the truth
There is no way I can really say
Anything at all;
People...Read more of this...
by
Omer Tarin
Of my own salt, these hills are made
I am made of them
grey stone
red dust
black wash--
from the jagged edge I look down
the land stares up at me
it is as me, stark and thorny,
it prickles as I do,
it is of my own salt.
(c) Omer Tarin, 'A Sad Piper' 1994...Read more of this...
by
Omer Tarin
I
One quarter of a century has elapsed
the diurnal movement of a life-cycle
rotating on its own axis
turned inwards and away from
hung by a nail upon the casement
II
Two of the nine lives have drifted
sinking somewhere near the embankment
while out prowling the empty streets at night
digging in this corner and that
poking here and there
in the trashcans lining the alley
III
Three horsemen have...Read more of this...
by
Omer Tarin
It has been some time, since we spoke in rhyme
my love;
And tonight I behold you anew
Burning with your adored endlessness
As reckless as the morning dew,
caressing the rose in its repose
Rising with the sun,
to be one,
descending with the rain,
Reborn in pain
torn in twain
driven insane;
Somewhere, out there,
within your vast domain,
when we unite
there is no day or night.
(from ''Burnt Offerings'',...Read more of this...
by
Omer Tarin
They stand together
The twin stalks
In my backyard,
Sometimes reminders
Of some things not done,
Some weeds not plucked
When it was time to do so;
Why I did not clear the yard
Is not so important now
As why did I want to?
Indeed, I see no petal
Half as nice as those two
That grow together, in their awkward fashion,
And they have some part of me
Where it wouldn't do;
It...Read more of this...
by
Omer Tarin
Twice or thrice they crisscross
Across the level crossing
And the nettles cling
Stubbornly to their sides
Spreading their displeasure
Upon the broken ridges
Of crumbling soil;
But the nettles cannot go
Where railway tracks lead-
Everywhere
And nowhere
All at once
Whistling into the night
With a longing
That pierces
Isolation.
----
(c) Omer Tarin. Pub ''Pasban Review'' Pakistan (1999) ...Read more of this...
by
Omer Tarin
Some souls pass away so quietly that not even the suspiration of their fleeting wings
is heard, or known, to us, among so many other activities, so many other things;
so, this was one such soul, that breathed its last, effortlessly and without pain,
melting away into the unknown, rising to the snowy Himalayan heights, shining forth beyond these dusty plains;...Read more of this...
by
Omer Tarin
I consecrate you
Twin-horned Ram
to ritual glory;
You may celebrate
your consecration
before the butcher comes
to cut your throat.
(from ''The Anvil of Dreams'', 1995)
...Read more of this...
by
Omer Tarin
Elves lived here, once,
where today the blanched shells lie
of snails
who have outlived their selves;
I would, if I could,
bring back elves
but I feel they would, too, like snails,
who have outlived their time,
lose themselves where once they lived.
(from A Sad Piper, 1994) ...Read more of this...
by
Omer Tarin
You draw your breath
yearning
a sadness infinite
in its contemplation;
I, who embraced death
in dumbfounded rapture
am reborn
in the eternal question
imprisoned in your eyes;
Are we to celebrate
this reprieve
relying
on our doomed songs
of desperate desire?
Let's be buried together.
(from ''Burnt Offerings, 1996)
...Read more of this...
by
Omer Tarin
As in the Vale of Sorrow the cage'd woodlark sings
songs of hope for tomorrow, so shall we sing our woodnotes wild,
amongst rushes and wildness of wild lemon-grass;
For hope springs eternal in the heart
and some larks are set free,
(From 'Selected Poems')
...Read more of this...