Mohsin علي 110

I believe it was many moons ago

When the sun rose to my east

Lullabies grew with the roses then

With your curls a softness came over.

There palaces were visited

Angels came and whispered in our ears

My stranger and I, the occupier of me

You, my secret skies and all my affection.

If not for you, my eyes would not stay open

If not for your eyes, and your eyes alone

It would be only me and this moon

In that darkness, a ruinous self lies.

You are the lover, if all love shuns me

You are the prayer, if all faith abandons me.

I have no desire but to make haste to thee

To climb all mountains, to swim through seas

My lover, my life, my more than precious

My heart is a strange crevice to occupy

But it has belonged to you, worthless before.

I stitch ballads on its walls, all in your name

You are inked in all margins of my being

Come see my suffering and rid me of myself

Entwine your fingers into mine

The sun will never set as you and I meet

For only then, tears turn to beautiful streams

May there never be reasoning nor logic

There is all of existence

and then there is you

٧٨٦

What is with you will be exhausted but what is with Allah is permanent.” (16:96)

“the world is as if it has never been and the hereafter is as if it has always been.”

we thought you understood our silence

and the hidden pain in these ancient eyes

Alas,

you only wanted this heart to open

so you could gaze at it..

We never desired words - yet for you we have spoken oceans,

explaining, proclaiming, begging -

maybe you would understand

the sky knows my secrets

we have no need for any strangers anymore

O my dear companion

my sweet و

since we met - you have received me wholeheartedly

be it morning or night

be it dark or light

o’ و

after all this

after leaving the land of Heaven

is it true - that no one is ours.

it is true it is only Layla

and the Remembrance of the truth

.

What an unsettling feeling this is

The tips of my fingers are numb

From the cold of this distance

I boil water to rid myself of the pain.

Why is my heart clawing inside me

Why is it trying to free itself of me

Maybe it is not the cold nor the numb

Nor it is scabs from all the clawing

It is you. Oh my sweet darling it is you.

What sin have I committed to endure this

To be granted such grand sights

Of such a heaven sent soul near me.

The water is boiling over the fire

And I think of all the love you poured in me

And I am terrified of your sweet eyes.

The flowers bloom around our bodies

But my sight is on the dirt beneath

Your fingernails in this sunlight.

You are all dreams and everything sacrament

If you were sent to haunt me then do

Haunt me when I am not near you

Set this house I am shackled to on fire

Leave nothing inside alive but this

Terrified frail heart that is yours.

The light of the flames create

The most beautiful light around your face

And I am a thief trying to steal this memory

Trying to keep you for a little bit longer.

The sun rises and ashes are scattered

But this is earth is sacred where you stand

The night confesses

what the day could never say

Between these words and salutations

we stand, but do not remain

The cradle of civilization awaits,

a colour from your face we paint

These poems contain wonders

I decorate a cage with pain

I let the angel of hesitation explain

A golden hour,

some lifetimes for us to fade

Whisper, whisper old lullaby

Above the blanket of existence

Someone congregates today

A eulogy inviting your scent

This is where imagination gives way...

Colourful readings

The silence is never deceiving

Someone brought too many flowers,

Shinning brighter then

anything you could believe in

The dazzling wonders in your eyes

Speak of the manuscripts which are buried inside

Dear mountains, bring us some news

Come and visit our bedside..

• Mohsin Ali

Some moments and a manifestation covered in soul

The dissolving windows hold the ropes

Each star enveloped in mysteries like gold

The rain which falls is all i know..

Fly O’wanderer no one is at home

• Mohsin Ali

With wishes on there wings,

letters from the lost

Silence which drinks

Unknown wanderers,

passing in the dim

Articulating nothingness in poems

staying till the end is witnessed as a dot

Strangers hold a strange facade

Fables like secrets yearn from the dark

Dissolving oceans till we stand apart

Words pour wherever

there is a broken heart

These are but moments,

they too shall pass

Odours never last

which only exists in the night

All this servitude to words

why care so much

about this world

These lineages persist within us

Growing out like grass in the spring

serpents visit when we think..

In the dust of the desert

we made paths touch

Serene stillness, a cup of stars

Let tonight pass

If darkness is a cure,

what we have

is enough for us

• Mohsin