"Every form
of refuge has its price"
© Farouk Asvat
poems
for π.
1. Whiteflower
2. An Act Of
Immortality
3. The Barrier
4 She Loved Me
5. After All
These Years
___________________________________________________________________________ WHITEFLOWER
shaded pink
brown freckled
Our love blossomed
One night
Among these dark festering alleys
so foreign to you
Our love wilted
When morning came
So frightfully fresh
so foreign to me
Sad
and somewhat piqued
you left
i
stayed
with my radical rhetoric
somewhat humbled
O my beloved
Phantom of the dark
By daylight we have to dream
© farouk asvat
___________________________________________________________________________
AN ACT OF IMMORTALITY
'Love is
touching souls'
Our hearts understood so well
What minds never can
What uniforms would never allow
Though I had to leap chasms
For you to reach me
No! it is not I
With blazing soul
Loathing the smug and satanic
Among these rotting ramparts
Who has lost his humanity
Though you still
sit accusingly
Smugly sipping
The river that flows in my
brother
Blowing thoughtful smokerings
To encircle my mind
With cosy notions of humanity.
Because we have cried so much
We know how to laugh
Know how to love
Even when we hate
So tonight I shall love you
On your side of town
Slip out of your wet passion
Slip through my arid land
To the waiting border
Or seek refuge in some zinc palace
And choose my moment
To greet their trains with thunder
So we talk of strategy
Between the kisses
We ask why
Hate comes so easy
Why we overturn this earth
To harvest dry sheaves of sanity
So do not kill me now
With your kind of love
For someday soon
We shall stand face to face
Your kin and my kind
With hate in our holsters
Theirs greased by greed
Ours by love
Born of hatred
For the blue-eyed sons of the gods
The masters of evil
© farouk asvat
___________________________________________________________________________
THE BARRIER
And now, each distant time we meet
We break bread in some quiet corner
Reliving the quieter moments of our lives.
But the years have stilled the passion;
The magic bond is broken.
And you mark your distance
Keeping your lively green eyes shuttered
Refusing entry to the brooding soul.
And thus distanced
The schism widens
So much, I have wanted the essence:
To feel the fragrance of
freshness
To dance to your lively
eyes
To drink the troubled soul
Kiss the compassionate
smile.
So much I have wanted.
But too much have I
fed on misery
To live in whitewashed
fairyland;
Too much been part of the
suffering
For you to stand the strain of
my existence
For you to come to me
To be my fantasy
Be my only reality.
So far apart
in so many ways
So much closer than closer
friends
The evening air whispers
Almost with a sigh
Outside, the wind
stirs
Black clouds gather with
vengeance;
The first drops have fallen;
And in the stillness
The night is restless
© farouk asvat
___________________________________________________________________________
SHE LOVED ME
She loved me
And now I've lost her
I love her
And now she's gone
© farouk asvat
___________________________________________________________________________
AFTER
ALL THESE YEARS
a letter to a friend
wherever she may be
Anger swells
Like an explosion
In the chest
But it is too late
To change lives now
Love is a strange feeling
I left behind
In the disturbances of youth;
The tiger will not let me off
And the hyena cannot stop laughing
As the hippo rides the streets
Besides, we are too learned now
To go back to the source
After all these years
The emerald dazzle has softened
Your eyes have black sediments
And I have aged in my youth
Oh how the years wasted our lives
How our tongues could not speak
The language of our hearts
How we barricaded
Behind the myths of our upbringings
© farouk asvat
___________________________________________________________________________
[] poems composed: 1976 to 1991 [johannesburg, south
africa under #apartheid]. ___________________________________________________________________________
[§] Books by Farouk Asvat:
● Sadness In The House Of Love (novel)
● The Gathering Of The Storm (novel)
● I Dream In Long Sentences (poetry)
● The Wind Still Sings Sad Songs (poetry)
● A Celebration Of Flames (poetry)
● The Time Of Our Lives (poetry)
● This Masquerade (short stories)
● Bra Frooks … (poetry)*
● The Paanies Are Coming (short stories)*
● In The House Of Love (novel)*
● Weapons Of Words (comparative literature & literary criticism)
¨ all my books are now available on amazon: in paperback & kindle
___________________________________________________________________________
§ THE TIME OF OUR LIVES by FAROUK ASVAT §
"The Time of Our Lives
reveals a writer who enjoys words:
- he has a sense of rhythm close to TS Eliot and an eye for the
modern image."
● Brian Rose, Rand Daily Mail
"It bears testimony to the resilience and courage of the
oppressed in South Africa ...
His poetry is devastatingly
forthright and hard-hitting."
● Tyrone August, The Star
"Asvat's imagery is stark - his poems taut encapsulations of
the injustices wreaked on Black people."
● Asha Rambally, The Graphic
"Asvat's poem (‘Possibilities for a Man Hunted by SBs’) is a
clear and simple statement of the true state of affairs - reducible to
mathematical terms."
● Mbulelo Mzamane, Perspectives On South African English Literature
"Asvat's poems - with many depths, clever twists and
juxtapositions, are exciting, true, and thought-provoking."
● Wendy Vogt & Alan James, Upstream
"an almost palpable tenderness for a country whom the poet
alludes to as if she were a lover."
● Neela Alvarez-Pereyre, Commonwealth Essays
& Studies
''Beautiful
words … poignant … heartbreaking …''
re:
''Cries and Whispers''
● Jill
Townsend, Council Of Grandmothers, Ojai, California, USA
● ''The
Time Of Our Lives'' is the historically important anthology whose poems played such a
pivotal role in the struggle against the height of oppression in South
Africa. It accurately portrays what it
was like to live and fight, love and die under the discrimination and tyranny
of #apartheid.
● ''A Celebration of Flames '' - WINNER OF THE
VITA AWARD
● ''The Wind Still Sings Sad Songs
___________________________________________________________________________
[] acknowledgements:
___________________________________________________________________________
"Every
form of refuge has its price":
song: Lying
Eyes
performers: Eagles
composers: Don Henley/Glen Frey
publisher: Warner Bros Music
album: One Of These Nights
(asylum)
"Love is touching
souls":
song: A Case Of You
performer: Joni Mitchell
composer: Joni Mitchell
publisher: Joni Mitchell Music
album: Blue (reprise)
___________________________________________________________________________
1. Whiteflower was previously published in:
The Time Of Our Lives (black thoughts publications, p48, 1982);
Wietie 1 (sable,
johannesburg, p8, 1980);
Botsotso 12 (botsotso,
johannesburg, p59, 2002);
The Time Of Our Lives (piquant publications, p69, 2007);
(17.04.2012);
The Time Of Our Lives (kindle, 2014);
The Time Of Our Lives (amazon paperback, p69, 2014).
[] composed: 1976, johannesburg,
south africa under #apartheid.
___________________________________________________________________________
2. An Act Of
Immortality was previously
published in:
The Time Of Our Lives (black thoughts publications, p49, 1982);
Wietie 1 (sable,
johannesburg, p8, 1980);
The Time Of Our Lives (piquant publications, p70, 2007);
(17.04.2012);
The Time Of Our Lives (kindle, 2014);
The Time Of Our Lives (amazon paperback, p70, 2014).
[] composed: 1976, johannesburg,
south africa under #apartheid.
The Immorality Act prohibited any close relationship, cohabitation
and 'miscegenation' between a white and a black person.
It was introduced by the British colonialists in the early 20th century,
and was reinforced by the South African #apartheid regime.
___________________________________________________________________________
3. The Barrier was previously published in:
The Time Of Our Lives (black thoughts publications, p51, 1982);
Wietie 1 (Sable,
Johannesburg, p8, 1980);
Exiles Within (Writers' Forum,
Cape Town, p2, 1985);
A Celebration of
Flames (heller fund, uc berkeley, usa, p13, 1988);
The Time Of Our Lives (piquant
publications, p72, 2007);
(17.04.2012);
The Time Of Our Lives (kindle, 2014);
The Time Of Our Lives (amazon paperback, p70, 2014).
[] composed: 1976, johannesburg,
south africa under #apartheid.
___________________________________________________________________________
4. She Loved Me was previously published in:
The Wind Still Sings Sad Songs (piquant
publications, p25, 2006);
(17.04.2012);
The Wind Still Sings Sad Songs (kindle, 2014);
The Wind Still Sings Sad Songs (amazon
paperback, p10, 2014).
[] composed: 21.08.1991,
johannesburg, south africa under #apartheid.
___________________________________________________________________________
5. After All These Years
was previously published in:
A Celebration Of Flames (donker, p35, 1987);
English Academy Review 3 (university of
the witwatersrand, p6, 1985);
Dokumente Texte und Tendenzen VIII (evangelische akademie, germany, 165, 1987);
A Celebration of Flames (heller fund,
uc berkeley, california, usa, p29, 1988);
Culture In Another South Africa, ed
W Camschreur, J Divendal (olive branch
press, new york, p198, 1989);
Na Al Deze Jaren: Dutch
translation by Irene Scheltes (1989);
Μετα Απο Ολα Αυτα Τα Χρονια: Greek translation by Paulos Ioannou (2022);
A Celebration Of Flames (piquant publications, p47,
2007);
(17.04.2012);
A Celebration of Flames (kindle, 2014);
A Celebration of Flames (amazon paperback, p47, 2014).
[] composed: 1985, Johannesburg,
South Africa under #apartheid
___________________________________________________________________________
© farouk asvat. All rights reserved.
Farouk Asvat
asserts his moral right to be
identified as the author of this work.
No part of this publication may be
reproduced by any means whatsoever, or transmitted in any form or any means
whatsoever, mechanical or electronic, including recording, printing,
photocopying, or via any computerised means or media, including the internet. This publication shall also not be stored in
a retrieval system. And the writing
shall not be sold, lent, hired, resold or circulated in any form or binding or
cover other than that in which it is published,
without
the prior permission of the author in writing.
Permission to
publish or reproduce the writings in any format can be obtained from the
author.
Reproduction of
this work without permission, except for scholarly & nonprofit purposes,
is liable to a
payment of 10, 000 ren men bi or US$ 1,500.
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]
the NOVEL Sadness In The House Of
Love by Farouk
Asvat
is now available on amazon: in paperback @ $20 & kindle @ only $5
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]
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#hellerfund #ucberkeley
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"Remember
that the highest rank that the human species can reach is to be a revolutionary."
● Ernesto
Ché Guevara
''Always be a poet, even in prose.''
● Charles Baudelaire
