Επιμέλεια: Εύα Πετροπούλου Λιανού
A Short Bio: Ali Imran is a poet based in Washington D.C. In his works, Imran explores the philosophical ideas of thinkers in the Eastern and Western worlds. Having lived and worked in South Asia, Europe, and the United States as a journalist, Imran has developed a unique perspective on an array of challenges like human disconnects, climate change, Nature, the human soul and the city life, universal mysteries, and immigrants. He approaches modern themes with a blend of metamodern, mystic, and romantic poetic styles. His poems have appeared in American and international literary magazines and anthologies.
Imran’s poem on affinity for peace was selected for a dramatic performance by the World Consciousness Alliance at their annual event in Washington D.C. Recently, the American University in Washington picked his poem La Convivencia for our Times for
reading as part of a discussion on the state of arts and culture in Muslim-majority countries.
Today, I Am a Fallen Leaf
Today, I am a fallen leaf,
Not the fall leaf
Whose colors you cherish,
For I feel blemished
With the blood of the innocent
Splashed in my face
From the streets of the Holy Land
Humans are turning red again.
Ah, it’s like I have been thrown
Somewhere on a desolate island
And wonder
If I could ever wash away
The bloody blots.
My tears,
Dewdrops,
Even furious rains –
Nothing might work.
Felled and hurting,
I am but a wound,
Cleft open
By the ferocity
Of a double-edged sword –
Wrongful convictions
And the canceling narratives
Of malice and exclusion.
But, never will I give in
To their deathly war drums,
Oh, I will float on the rustling winds.
Join the kindred souls
To light up the thick air
With songs of life.
The Sunset Mystery
A piece of art
Spread across the horizon?
One evening a golden hour,
The next, a riot
Of pink and red.
What do the sunsets signify?
A misty parting kiss
To the day
Or an embrace of the night?
The magic of colors and heat
Or simply an hour of transition
From the light
Into some spatial mystery
Or a dive
Into Times’s fathomless history?
How Much I Love You
When you ask me
How deep is my love for you
Oh, Love, I lose my way instantly –
Since love is fathomless
And all its measures countless
Like drops in an ocean
Or stars in the sky.
My restless heart, instead, tells me
To just savor the luscious glory
Of the last kiss on your lips.
Oh, how my heart has skipped
A thousand beats
In eternal expectation of you.
Unquenchable like the thirst
Of a parched desert,
Love flows into infinity –
Weaving me to
People near and far;
Driving my soul
To unending corners
Of the cosmos,
Rhyming me into a whirling dance
For something
Much higher, nobler
And inexpressibly beautiful.
Such is the power of love
That it knows no ebbs
When you are away
And when our arms intertwine.
Oh, Love, my love for you runs
As deep
As your loving heart
And it rages
As fiercely
As my wild heart.
