Queer Poem-a-Day is a program from the Adult Services Department at the Library and may include adult language.
Abu Nuwas
by Kazim Ali
Halfway between the northern and southern sky
Hangs the constellation of Abu Nuwas
Who drunk and in love knelt at places rivers split
To refuse all paths and offer his mosaic prayer
Unhinged he peeled from yellow-leafed birches enough paper
To fashion a barque and make for the moon
Floating in the moment where one wave becomes another
Amber driftwood or beach glass or lost unmapped stars reciting
We are what produces itself sanded and cast adrift
Precisely at the horizon and so eternally unseen
One note emerges from the drizzle of sound
What finally somehow though endless does wash ashore
Copyright © 2018 by Kazim Ali. Used with the permission of the author. Previously published in Inquisition (2018.)
Kazim Ali was born in the United Kingdom and has lived transnationally in the United States, Canada, India, France, and the Middle East. His books encompass multiple genres, including several volumes of poetry, novels, and translations. He is currently a Professor of Literature at the University of California, San Diego. His newest books are a volume of three long poems entitled The Voice of Sheila Chandra and a memoir of his Canadian childhood, Northern Light: Power, Land, and the Memory of Water. For more: kazimali.com
Queer Poem-a-Day is directed by poet and teacher Lisa Hiton and Dylan Zavagno, Adult Services Coordinator at the Deerfield Public Library. Music for our series is from Excursions Op. 20, Movement 1, by Samuel Barber, performed by pianist Daniel Baer. Queer Poem-a-Day is supported by a generous donation from the Friends of the Deerfield Public Library.