Ilona Yusuf
GRAVITY on nights when sleep eludes me reminiscences whisper through the vast thickets of my elephant memory cradling the halcyon isle of childhood tintern abbey with its soaring roofless walls dark woods & dappled light filtering through laced foliage sudden bright heads of flowers gathered in moist fistfuls cool mustiness of ground dressed in old browned leaves echoing in the ferns & brackens of himalayan slopes but for the smells one redolent of constant rain the other prey to the passions of the elements strong sun bringing pine sap to the surface filling the air with its sharp clean scent the earthy balm of rain pelting dry ground bringing mist and alpine flowers gravities that knit together inextricably define me (wales; nathia gali, a village in the Himalayas, whose flora is similar to Alpine flora) LANDSCAPE red blue yellow no secondary tertiary cadmium yellow indian red chrome blue no no lighter lighter until i reach the soft pinks yellows whites of crenellated cliffs and battlements residue of melting glaciers and green wheat punctuated by acid-sharp mustard flower but always that other landscape dogs me following behind my shoulder with its brighter hues for a memory of rock with deep-carved imprints for Indian red and salmon vermilion and teal so that i watch for images movies for landscape and light for a memory of colour for road cutting through desert crossed by long shadows of saguaro and ocotillo for light striking spines of joshua for the keen scent of prickly brush this keenness almost physical an edge of life sliced off so quick that raw ends scream for lost connections and this blankness what is it, a separation from things or from a vision of life or from a vision of light so sharp that it conjures a different world flung across time and space time and again the mind the eye return sounding with the deep resonance of a hollow well (arizona; potohar, a limestone region in the Punjab, Pakistan) Ilona Yusuf is a poet, printmaker and designer. Her poems have been published in book form (Picture This, Alhamra Publishing, 2001) and thereafter in literary journals in Pakistan and abroad. She has also written essays on Pakistani poetry in English, and worked on editing projects, most recently as a guest editor for a special issue on poets from Pakistan for the Canadian poetry journal Vallum. She freelances for several magazines, writing on art and literature. She has recently begun to integrate word and image, making artist's books. She blogs at ilonayusuf.blogspot.com
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