Memories of Kashmere

Never been to Gilgit or anywhere remotely near the Northern Areas. Rawalakot, Poonch and the areas surrounding Kotli are beautiful and remain quite ignored as touristy spots. Its full of waterfalls/weird and wonderful tree covered mountains and ample hidden small clear blue lakes and inhabited by white storks. Quite the gorgeous is our Kashmir.

There are a few disturbances though towards the border area where we have been subject to attacks from the Indian forces a handful of times, you wouldn't have heard about this in the mainstream media as its all kept hush-hush for some reason.
Alas this post is not about the Indo-Pak wars but about the natural beauty of Kashmir.

Re: ...Against the molten distant Dal Lake in balls of flame and fire!....

This brings back many memories.
Sunsets over the Dal Lake are unbelievably beautiful, especially with the snowy peak
of Mahadev brilliantly lit and reflected in the lake …in all its glory. We used to live
very close to the lake and I spent many evenings watching the mountains by the side of the
lake change colors from brownish blue to varying shades of mauve and red and mirrored in the calm waters of the lake.

Sadly though, your words have an entirely different meaning now.

Great poem. Hope you get a chance to write
more on this topic.

Ras

Hi Moe,

Superb poem. It brought back all the right things, although I confess not remembering any heather.
I specially remember the way the milky way was spread out in the night sky, and I couldn`t believe there were so many stars up there.
Oh, and the food. The food was amazing. Chapli Kebab I think its called. Great stuff.
Thanks for reviving the memories.

p.s. I`m sure I`m missing a deeper significance in the last stanza. Can you expand a little?

Moe,

Beautiful poem ! I wish I could go visit the
Northern areas again this December. I have many happy memories still...

Never having been much of a poet (or poetry lover), I cannot help but feel that the author has never been to Gilgit. Having lived and worked there, I can attest to the fact that its not beautiful but actually rather ugly. The view in spring, when the apple blossoms bloom, is lovely but this is the view from Gilgit, of the areas across the river (I can`t now recall the name of the villages there).

Now, Hunza or Naltar in spring is another matter. Truly lovely but Gilgit is pretty much of a hellhole. I apologize to Miriam but even my friends who are from Gilgit didn`t call it beautiful. We would go up to Naltar for our antidote to the unmitigated dreariness of life in Gilgit. It is not for nothing that Karakorum means (crumbling!) black rock.

It`s lovely, and quite like Robbie Burns, but has the writer actually been to Gilgit, or is relying on the powers of imagination to create an image of a place which really isn`t full of ``heather`` or ``swans``? Gilgit is truly a beautiful place, often in a spare way - interrupted by patches of vivid greens and chenar lined village roads.

And I haven`t met anyone in Gilgit who can even begin to remember the last time it snowed there - it`s just too dry! And to be able to see Dal Lake from Gilgit you`d have to have fantastic eyes.

I`ve lived in Gilgit, and my family is from there, and it`s wonderful to see someone feels it is worthy of poetic ambition!