Poetry of Mohammad Shafiqul Islam

A Photograph

A photograph, exquisite,
still in the azure,
hard paper,
smiling in silence,

nonchalant, cares for none,
nothing,
naught,
loves only nature,
green, beautiful,
that amazingly
stirs
the psyche.

I am in love
with the photograph
that responds my love
very lovingly.

Nature, immaculate, flabbergasted,
tiptoes into its solitude
and the photograph
sparkles.

I Envisage You

Being free from hazards I envisage you.
The mutest spot aids me to perform
such. Only for you I will seek no norm.
Evils can hurt me, yet to God must I sue.
Green? blue? pink? white? I like your diverse hue.
Thorns wrap me; never'less I want to worm
my way in dark, caring no awful storm.
You are truly peerless, so your fine queues.

Men, lustful, who are destroyers of light
endeavor to insult your winsome face.
Contemporaries envy your blue eyes.
You, have down pat, are in my secr'tive right.
Nature provides, I'm certain, distinct grace
to you. Smile, no plea, if not, my heart bawls.

Copyright 2007, Mohammad Shafiqul Islam. © This work is protected under the U.S. copyright laws. It may not be reproduced, reprinted, reused, or altered without the expressed written permission of the author.

Mohammad Shafiqul Islam received his MA in English at the University of Chittagong in Bangladesh. He teaches at Metropolitan University, Sylhet, Bangladesh, as Lecturer in the Department of English. His work appears regularly in The Daily Star, the leading English newspaper in Bangladesh, as well as The Bangladesh Observer and the weekly magazine Dhaka Courier. He's the executive editor of The Newsletter, published tri-monthly by the Metropolitan University, and an editorial assistant for Metropolitan University Journal, a platform for the enthusiasts of research and scholarly writings, where his work has also appeared. He is also translating celebrated Bengali writings into English.