Having taken one day off, I see a bunch of poems here. I found yours powerful, Dominic, even before I read about Ahsan.
I take David's point, in that it was the one word that stopped me, & which I would have to go look up. But I think the way you connect the I to the we here, & so implicate us all is especially interesting...
Doug
On 2012-05-26, at 5:38 PM, Dominic Fox wrote:
> FOR TALHA AHSAN
>
> We - poets -
> are feckless creatures.
> The perfections of scripture
> are not in our line -
>
> I say scripture: recitation,
> perfection of recitation, the voice aligned
> at once with its deepest impulse, everything
> coming out right -
>
> We stammer our verdictives, on which force
> pivots, may lose its balance. I'm not sure
> that's what you need to hear.
> I would be with you
>
> somehow, if in profession only.
> It is one thing to be the fool
> we all are, another to be taken
> for an asset. Oh Talha, by the mercy
>
> of whatever God, come through in safety;
> by men's mercy, though it cannot be
> depended on, be plucked out from the eye
> of tyranny; be back amongst us soon.
>
> ---
>
> (for context, see http://freetalha.org/)
>
Douglas Barbour
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