This is at one remove–a substitute
For final answers. But the wise man knows
To cleave to the one living absolute
Beyond paraphrase, and shun a shrewd repose.
~ Derek Mahon, Preface to a Love Poem
Impossible to look directly into
another’s eyes. Impossible to look
into your own. You read the dense book
of being like a document you flick through.
~ George Szirtes, Rough Guide
You made me wait for one who wasn’t even there
though summer had finished in that tourist land.
Do the blind hold temples close to their eyes
when we steal their gods for our atheist land?
~ Agha Shahid Ali, Land
We are faithful
only to the imagination. What the
imagination
seizes
as beauty must be truth. What holds you
to what you see of me is
that grasp alone.
~ Denise Levertov, Everything that Acts is Actual
lovely quotations. agha shahid ali sends goosepimples instead of postcards.
Perfect lines to go with those beautiful images. More!
@Space Bar: Yes, really…it’s amazing what he does with the ghazal form.
@Mumbai Paused: Glad you liked.