Three New Poems Published

A Stone Lizard

A stone lizard

darted its tongue

and caught a cave cricket

the cricket creaked, buzzed…

and the sound died in a few moments.

The lizard crept on the rough mountain

where hard trees and plants grew

and dry leaves lay strewn

the lizard cried shaking its head: I live in the mountain

in cave, among stones. I’m a stone.

I hide myself in the chrome

and eat the insects which I turn

into stone in my dark stony stomach.

Tell Lies

Tell lies

for there is much faith in believing lies

and let them show how much they love you.

Truth is well propagated in promises

in politics, in judiciary, in love.

Lovers die to uphold the promises

Politicians fight at the hustings to prove their words

Judiciary strives to uphold morality

Lies receive a cold welcome everywhere.

I’ve won many awards for truth

But I bargain life each time I tell lies.

Empty Chest

I want to cry at the pain

I can’t

My chest is empty

I feel the pain too battering.

Note: All these three poems were first published in ken* again, the literary magazine, Vol. 10, No. 4, Winter 2009/2010.

Critical Essays

Four best literary critical essays:

Black Anomalies in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone
August Wilson depicts black anomalies in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. A. Wilson is one of the great black writers who showcases the encumbrance which the Blacks were chocked in — the white tyranny of slavery.

Christopher Marlowe the First Rebellious in Literature
Christopher Marlowe is remembered largely as a great tragedy playwright but he was more than a believer in the Renaissance and creator of a world of his own...Marlowe rebelled against religious tenets, against social laws, against the submissiveness of human nature and against the literary theory.

Mid-Twentieth Century Sub-Urbane of America
Sub-urban life compared by Louis Simpson in the poem “In the Suburbs”and John Ciardi in the peom “Suburban”.

Jonathan Swift was a great dreamer of Utopia
Jonathan Swift was a great dreamer of Utopia, an imaginary land where every thing is so fine and orderly and not a misanthrope as he is alleged to be by a larger community of the critics.

To read in full, please visit:

Khurshid_Alam's_Essays_at_Shvoong

Investigative Poetry published with Muse India

Investigative Poetry

Investigative writing is about delving deep into the truth behind a thing. Many a times, we come across an event that we doubt having been caused because of some ulterior motive. This doubt causes us to search into the event. Many writers and poets too have often hinted at the truth behind a thing and have disclosed the secrets.

Investigative poetry is such a genre in which a poet investigates an event in a role of an investigative writer. One of the great names in this genre is of Charles Olson, a great bard of America with whom Edward Sanders finds investigative poetry to have born. In investigative writing the writers investigate into the explicit and laugh at the implicit. This is a serious task though, but the responsibility is great. Often the truth is too terrible, though it sometimes turns out to be extremely beautiful.

Being certain that they and I
But lived where motley is worn:
All changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
--W. B. Yeats, "Easter 1916"

Investigative poetry has some unique features, which define the genre. It investigates the thing that stands before us in disguise. The on-the-screen happening is different but the fact is somewhat else.

Investigation, however, involves high risk of being false at times. For when you doubt a thing you begin your investigation. The doubt may not be validated as well. But if the doubts lead to a truth and the truth is proved only then the job is achieved.

Note: First published in Muse India, Issue 27, Sep-Oct 2009, ISSN: 0975-1815 with slight changes.