THE BEASTS THAT I HARBOUR IN MY HEART
© Farouk
Asvat
In
the delicateness of the butterfly
That
flutters within your heart
you suffer.
White
pigeons scatter in our lovely garden.
The beasts that I harbour in my heart
Come to life at night,
Seconds tick on like threats in a timebomb:
The night is more awake and alive
Than our days filled with slaughter.
There is so much affection gone to waste
So much of the madness of love between us
That a shadow of disdain
Flits across your face,
While the fluttering ache of another poem
Comes to brood on my silent abdomen.
With
you I knew sadness;
It
creeped into our laughter.
Misfortune
was our companion
Sadness
piled upon sadness
In the
silence of the night.
Tenuously
I hold on to the rhythm of the seasons
Tenuously
I hold on to our hopeless revolution
Your
downy little dove trembling
Between
my tender loins
Softening
the creases on my rocky face,
Oblivious
of the ghost of savage mourning
That
grows talons in my chest.
Still,
I
accept you with too many questions
Lingering
on the periphery of other dreams
Dancing
on the graves of other lovers
Ululating
with the ghosts of youngsters
Dancing
with machetes around our bed,
Offering
you everything
As
if there were no tomorrow.
If
only I could learn myself in you.
If
only I could
Receive some of your forgetfulness
As
a blessing and a curse.
But the wraiths of other lovers
Writhe within our sheets,
Wailing ancestors
Dance in our dances,
While we try
To pirouette into oblivion,
Always the oblivion
Of the moment.
© farouk asvat
composed: 1983 - 1988 [Johannesburg, South Africa under
apartheid] [v]
___________________________________________________________________________
§ THE WIND STILL SINGS SAD SONGS by FAROUK ASVAT
● AMAZON 5-star review *****
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"Currently reading a book of
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re: ''She Loved Me'':
''So few words conveying so much.
Beautiful bitter-sweetness.''
● Philip Low, G+
"The legend of poet extraordinaire Farouk Asvat: like
vintage wine, proper poetry matures with time, and like vintage art the voice
and wisdom of a poet worth the name is timeless."
● Mphutlane wa Bofelo, kagablog
"a guided tour of
the souls of the South Africans he writes about and cares about.
Hauntingly universal"
● Thomas Rome, New York
"they are very powerful
literary missiles: capable of the most beguiling love poetry,
as can be seen in "Love Devours
Me" ''.
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"The Wind Still Sings Sad
Songs" is an important addition to any discerning reader's literary
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● Victor Metsoamere, Sowetan
___________________________________________________________________________
[§] 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
(literary criticism)
● all my paperback
& kindle editions
__________________________________________________________________________
[] aknowledgements:
The Beasts That I
Harbour In My Heart was
previously published in:
The Wind Still Sings Sad Songs (piquant publications, p17, 2006);
https://faroukasvat-poems.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-beasts-that-i-harbour-in-my-heart.html (20.08.2013);
The Wind Still Sings Sad Songs (kindle, 2014);
The Wind Still Sings Sad Songs (amazon
paperback, p19, 2014).
__________________________________________________________________________
© farouk asvat. All
rights reserved.
Farouk Asvat asserts his moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
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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 yuan (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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