Fragment XXVI: Let's Not Forget..

Scaling the magnificent Nanga Parbat in Pakistan.
Photograph by: Tommy Heinrich, National Geographic Magazine, January 2008

Every time I travel to the North, to the magnificent cradle of earth giants, I am overwhelmed by a feeling of utter powerlessness. Living in cities, and having built skyscrapers and manipulated genes, man deceives himself with delusions of grandeur. And the city nurtures these delusions. It takes away the immediacy of nature, and by extension existence, replacing it with a fabricated sense of being. But up there in the mountains, we are engaged in a direct confrontation with the awesome power of nature. She needs to be respected and left alone, for she has the capacity of annihilating mankind, and whatever we hold dear, within seconds. This fact should never be forgotten, and for this reason alone, it is important to get away from cities- which are after all, artificial human constructions- to get a sense of perspective on what is ultimately, real.

Zaina Anwar, September 2011

Fragment XXV

Subversion
Miriam Sweeney

It is impossible for a poet not to think. The very nature of his craft implies a profound, conscientious exploration of the innumerable strata of life's encounters and experiences. The poet is a lifter of veils; he dissects at the very core of being to reveal that which is hidden.

The poet is ultimately, an instrument of the unknown.


Zaina Anwar, September 2011

Fragment XXIV

The forest has always been a hiding place, a place where no rules apply. Where no conventions exist to mar the possibilities of silence.

Zaina Anwar (September 2011)

Poem- End of a Chapter

Silence.
Night's glory's stretched
Across a star speckled sky.

Remember how we heard
Tender sounds of a waterfall
Somewhere in the wild?
You cupped a bird
With wounded wings in your hands.

That day you read my conscience.
That day we dug
A solitary grave for our love.

Zaina Anwar (September 2011)

Poem- Fragment XXIII

In these reckless times, each one us
is trying to map a speculative chart
of precarious possibilities.

Zaina Anwar (September 2011)