Long Ahmad Poems

SELF REFLECTIONS

These are poems about mirrors, images, self-image, reflections, impressions and self-reflection. 

Self Reflection
by Michael R. Burch 

for anyone struggling with self-image

She has a comely form
and a smile that brightens her dorm ...
but she's grossly...

Read More

Let Me Give Her Diamonds
by Michael R. Burch

Let me give her diamonds
for my heart's
sharp edges.

Let me give her roses
for my soul's
thorn.

Let me give her solace
for my words
of treason.

Let the flowering of love
outlast a winter
season.

Let me...

Read More

Poems about Things that Break I
 
These are poems about things that break and/or shatter: a bubble, glass, a mirror, a twig or tree limb, a thunderstorm, cities and towers in times of war, old...

Read More

Poems about Things that Break III
 
These are poems about things that break and/or shatter: a bubble, glass, a mirror, a twig or tree limb, a thunderstorm, cities and towers in times of war, old...

Read More

Zero.
By which nothing is divided.
No zero
no negative
no opposite
no hope
no Adam, no apple, no marriage, no morning.
No mirror
no knowledge
no God, no soul, no ear lobe, no Iliad, no Odyssey.
No universe
no black hole
no zodiac
no hero
no mission, no...

Read More

Speak
by Faiz Ahmad Faiz
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Speak, while your lips are still free.
Speak, while your tongue remains yours.
Speak, while you're still standing upright.
Speak, while your spirit has force.

See how, in the bright-sparking forge,...

Read More

Mirror
by Kajal Ahmad, a Kurdish poet
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

My era's obscuring mirror
shattered
because it magnified the small
and made the great seem insignificant.
Dictators and monsters filled its contours.
Now when I breathe
its jagged shards pierce my...

Read More

These are English translations of Urdu poems by Faiz Ahmad Faiz. 



Speak!
by Faiz Ahmed Faiz
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Speak, while your lips are still free.
Speak, while your tongue remains yours.
Speak, while you’re still standing...

Read More

These are English translations of Urdu poems by Faiz Ahmed Faiz, whose name is also frequently spelled Faiz Ahmad Faiz. 

Last Night
by Faiz Ahmed Faiz
translation by Michael R. Burch

Last night, your memory stole into my...

Read More

The Eager Traveler
by Ahmad Faraz
translation by Michael R. Burch

Even in the torture chamber, I was the lucky one;
When each lottery was over, unaccountably I had won.

And even the mightiest rivers found accessible refuge in me;
Though...

Read More

A reminder to Nigerian current president, 
Oh ! Uncle president Bola Ahmad Tinubu, 
One of the  seniors African politicians 
who could direct the youths well not to hell.  
Your honorary doctorate in political science 
and...

Read More

You split yourselves in countless sects, In classes high and low;
Think you the world its gifts will still on such as you bestow?
Who now forgetfully neglect My Rasool’s Law sublime?
And whose lives write them clearly...

Read More

Of Cars in Malaysia Part 1

In this part of the world where I am at, a motorcar is every somebody’s must have…
Simply because reliable and regular scheduled public transportations is not as we should ...

Read More

No Explanation! (I)
by Ahmad Faraz
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Please don't ask me how deeply it hurt!
Her sun shone so bright, even the shadows were burning!



No Explanation! (II)
by Ahmad Faraz
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Please...

Read More

*The Boy Who cried German*

  Although Ikeh was as nervous as ever he still gathered a little guts to address those sluts. He always did walk around in a jumpsuit like that suitor who...

Read More

Not much to do today
caught up on some 
deferred reading
went to the store to pick up
 a few things
took a walk down 3rd Ave
 	to get some sun

Basima and Azhar 
play in the okra field
chasing...

Read More

once upon a human

two kids named
ahmad and stan

each in his world 
loved reading Peter Pan

didn't see it coming
their dreams broken
down by the khazarian plan

they fell for their division
train 
United by same grief and
pain

so abrupt was...

Read More

Defenders Endangered

Citizens unite spirits; choose the better part!
Life, God given, stolen by greed’s black-heart.  
Industry progressed far beyond the pushcart.
Thus, setting some selves apart as better…smart.

The endangered protecting the endangered –
Compassion fettered by solutions...

Read More

supporting the anti-communists in 
the Soviet Union from
1944 to 1989---
supporting al-Za’im in Syria in
1949---
installing Shah Mohammed Reza 
Pahlevi in 1953 Iran---
supporting Colonel Carlos Castillo 
Armas in 1954 Guatemala---
providing weapons to anti-communist
Tibetans, from the mid-1950’s to...

Read More

-By Ibrahim Ahmad Hasan

                               ...

Read More

She was walking on the footpath uneven,
The tiles, at places, jagged and broken
Making the pedestrians walk with care
Stuffed in her head a question not fair.

Meandering not to knock a sleeping beggar
With a battered bowl, a...

Read More

For my friend Ahmad, who requested a poem about hummingbirds :) 

No hummingbirds
Nowhere hummingbirds
What the eff are hummingbirds?

Birds, the world is filled with flocks
They have the weirdest names
I am NOT playing games
No regulars like sparrows...

Read More

As an inmate, holidays are very difficult, being away from family and loved ones, and the 
smell of food from the kitchen. This will be my last Thanksgiving and Christmas in this awful 
place. ...

Read More

Emergency ward, Bed no. 05
 
By - Ahmad Rayees
 
I found her lamenting in agony on the bed
Like a hunted bird with broken wings
Her frail body was trembling in shudder  
That Innocent girl Couldn't...

Read More

The wild blackberry villain
Fell in love with my sweet rose.
I found them in the garden
All entangled in love's throes.

I took a hoe and hit him hard
With all the strength I had.
How could my hybrid beauty...

Read More