Poems by Shah Jehan Ashrafi (Canada)

SHAH JEHAN ASHRAFI – PROFILE

Shah Jehan Begum Ashrafi was born in U.P., India, and grew up in Mauritius. She studied English and French literature at the University of Mauritius. After completing her postgraduate degree in education at the Mauritius Institute of Education, she taught English, French, and literature in various secondary schools. She wrote several plays for the National Drama Festival in Mauritius. Her first published work is a study guide to Arthur Miller’s play ‘All My Sons’. Writing poetry is her passion, and she is also working on a novel and some short stories. She was on the editing panel of Rajeshwari Chauhan’s novel ‘Daniel’s Diary’. Now the author lives in Canada and wishes to take up other jobs and widen her experience and knowledge. Shah Jehan Ashrafi completed her Master’s degree in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Montreal. She is currently preparing her PhD thesis on postmodernism and Sufism. Her poetry books namely ‘Incognito’, ‘Bloom and Gloom’, ‘Jar of Emotions’ and ‘Whispers’ are published on Amazon worldwide.



Hell-bent
Shah Jehan Ashrafi

How much poison does the chalice still hold?
I feel thirsty and I’m hell-bent to drink more
Not to do my duty but to accept conspiracy.


The hands that lead me to you
Have always betrayed me
And confined me behind walls.


Yet, I keep walking to come to you.
To have a sip.
To visualize myself beyond
The boundaries
you have set for me.


When my lips will turn blue
And my hopes will wither
I’ll plant a new seed in your bosom
And wait to see the flower bloom.


You’ll smell of innocence, a blank slate, an eternal lover.
You’ll become the elixir of life.


I’ll chase the mist falling on mountains
And you’ll sprout from springs that pour belief
On sizzling deserts.



Love
Shah Jehan Ashrafi

An enigma
A utopian concept
Yet, it waters our hearts
And makes us believe that
the maze runner
is not trapped.

He is only practicing
a sacred ritual.



Trapped in the Haze
Shah Jehan Ashrafi

The silky night weaves conspiracies.
Some might be thinking:
The following day will bring
more hope than the day that
has faded.

Some might know that
There is no light at all
At the end of the tunnel.
Some might believe
That suffering tastes bad;
It is made up of smokes,
guns, bombs and corpses.
Humans do not know about humanity.
They are without emotions, enchanted rainbows
And perhaps they don’t have illusions
that can make them question things
And dwell in the marshes of empathy.



They are trapped in the haze
And the colour red is a cruel
passion without any
compassion.


Boundaries are blurred.
Hope and despair resemble
And everything is
without purpose
And meaning.



When Hope Rebels
Shah Jehan Ashrafi

In the darkest hours of life
Reside some forgotten
Rays of hope
As if it’s difficult
To stifle them


They rebel
And say
We are alive
And will stay
Fervent
Merry makers


We are like children
Who smile on seeing candies
We look at our reflection
In the moon and the stars
And we forget that
We suffer


We are adamant
And repeat that
There’s a dawn after every
Dusk



It Was During Autumn
Shah Jehan Ashrafi

It was during autumn
When leaves like to fall
But I was wondering
How to rise and soar


Bright colours spread
It was celebration
Of death.
How can rebirth
Become possible
Without tasting the coffin?


Decay, loss and annihilation
Autumn held them all
But hope never left
My heart
Under the naked trees
I stood and
was hell bent to
see the flowers
bloom



Despair smiled
And hummed
with the migrating birds.
They promised to return
And I knew
I would wait.


The whirling leaves
reminded me of
the sacred circumambulation.
Was it necessary to surrender
To that force
And go into the wind?



I was restless
On the brink of
A new knowledge.


Then came stillness
And I was lost,
Engulfed by a new
Kind of numbness.


I felt like waiting
And filling
Nothingness’s call.


But I was
And knew
I was the vessel
Preparing
To hold
Love.


I dwelled in
Namelessness
But I had become
The Ocean
And I could
Not see the drop
I used to be…