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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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