Reforms! What Reforms? Great article. I couldn`t agree more with your sentiments. It`s no wonder that many of the young `brains` in our country are going abroad to places like America, Canada, Europe and even East Asia (e.g. Singapore) for a higher education which has value and potential. Many of them won`t return since intellectual integrity and creativity aren`t fostered in our country to the extent they are in other places.

// fahd

Four Poets: Four Poems Re: # 5

Thanks temporal. You seem to really enjoy translating other people`s works :D
I must say I prefer my version tho, but nice rendition. I wouldn`t have been able to translate in urdu due to my limited vocab, so I`ll stick to english as much as possible.

fahd

anti-depressant *shudder*

Cold Flesh The most annoying thing about this was the repetitive use of the FULL NAMES! I get it, the guy is Singh, the girl is Kaur; typically Sikh last names. But must it be repeated throughout the whole story as if the writer is facing a pronoun famine?

fahd

Elusive Re: # 7

Thank you so much!

Although, I hope it wasn`t just the similarity of my poem`s title and your user name ;)

The Aftergod Nicely written. The fuzzy-boundries of good and evil were portrayed quite well. However, the whole story climaxes to a flawed conclusion. The two lines ``A godless Earth. A peaceful Earth.`` Up until that point it was a good story; and then it became humanist/athiest propoganda. We all know that humans are flawed and complex. Our capability of performing extremes and the ability to affect others on larger scales than any other animal is the reason why the concept of a peaceful earth is elusive. To an equal degree, our Earth IS a godless earth as much as it is one with God. And no distinction can be made of insanity, stupidity and desire on either side.

Oh..and..it is not necessary for God to actually talk to Adam or Eve or any other human for us to conceive/know of him. So even in a godless Earth, where humans where never contacted by a God (whether existing or not), some of them would naturally turn to reach out to a higher unifying entity that could conceptually tie in the vastness and complexity of this universe.

Some would say this is because God is not a distinct separate being that he can just isolate himself from us, but is inherently the foundation of reality.

Anywho, the Angel/Demons war concept is something that really interests me (e.g. the movie Constantine) and maybe if you could write about the 2 wars in detail..that would be neat.

Elusive Re: # 5

Oooh feather! I hope its a peacocks...

I am glad my poem was provoking thoughts in you :) I don`t know if i`ll ever be a true poet that moves and inspires people, such as Rumi, but i`ll do fine with just so-so poet.

To answer your questions...

Passage 1:

Guiding gate is a reference to a place where peace, comfort and truth can be found. Yes, I used that for spiritual imagery. I debated between making it capitalized, but thought that would make it strongly refer to heaven, which was not my exact intention. I ofcourse used the ``guiding gate`` as a metaphor for something that would resolve the concepts of sin, pain and truth within the jungle (representing our world, our thoughts etc.) The guiding gate doesn`t have to be heaven/janaat or a fantasy-based eden. It could be something in the NOW. It could be something we don`t know..or the gate might actually be God. The point is, its hidden there...and i dont know what IT is..but I feel whatever it is to be there. When I wrote these few lines there were a few things going thru my mind: sin, confusion, the pain of not knowing/understanding `truth` and isolation (from self, others, God, reality).

These two lines represent a very pessimistic outlook infact. Because i am stating that to get out of this misery of being completely lost...one needs this `guiding gate`..and to find this guiding gate..u must find it in a jungle (representing our world) ..and in the jungle...it is within our own ``heart`s molten hidden core`` (basically..its no walk in the park to overcome the situation). So..this enlightement is within us..but incredibly hard to grasp..and just that fact makes one feel even more isolated (where the distance and pain are both growing)

Passage 5:

``Is there a religious undertone behind this?``

Yes.
What do you get out of these two lines if I may ask? (ofcourse..there`s no right/wrong in poetry)

``Im just trying to gauge to what level religion/spirituality inspired your poem ? ``

Almost all my poems have these themes (God, spirituality, truth, isolation, reality) . I have more. They`re even worse in terms of making sense out of them :P (or maybe worse in general hehe)

/fahd

Elusive Thank you all :)

/fahd

Connecting Fakhra,

I really liked the flow of this poem and, well, the subject matter of truth always interested me. This rendition of truth-seeking is quite interesting. Would you mind elaborating on what you are implying by symmetry and extensions?

Thanks,

Fahd