Of rhythm, rhyme and verse
When you grow up reading voraciously, you often develop a tendency to write. While most people write prose and that too fiction, some however opt for a different genre to express themselves, discovering that they can do better at poetry than prose.
Nishat Wasim chooses to expresses herself in verse form and has been writing poems since 1984 when she was still a student at the University of Karachi. Her debut poetic collection, Listen to the Wind, appeared in 2022.
Wasim who did her Masters in English literature, says that her personal experiences are often her inspiration and her poetry is something that she feels from inside or what touches her in some way, and that she expresses in words. “I can’t just write intellectually.” With her, it’s more like, aamad hoti hai or words just come to her.
“Her art consists of indirect, implied, delicate and nuanced statements hinting at a sensitive individual responding to life’s vicissitudes with a quiet grace and a stoic acceptance with undertones of the spiritual,” writes Huma Shakir in the introduction to her book.
Going through her book one can see that all of Wasim’s poems are in free verse. She says rhyme doesn’t come naturally to her and she would have to really force it which is not the best way to go about it. She says she is most comfortable with free verse and if she began to think about rhyme and rhythm the flow of ideas would not be the same, but may appear contrived or forced. For her, the thought doesn’t really convey what she wants to say if she tries to conform to rhyme and rhythm.
Wasim’s poems are not confined to a particular theme. She has written on diverse subjects ranging from nature to spirituality to faith to feminism to the current political situation inspired by the current events or whatever is going on in the country, and with the economic situation of the people. “My focus has shifted or, let us say, the range has increased. Your perspective changes as you grow older you experience more and, hopefully, as it matures, one gets into different areas of experience.”
Nature appears to be a great healer for Wasim and has influenced her a lot. And how could it not, given that she teaches Romanticism and is greatly influenced by Romantics such as Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Keats. She believes that it may be because she has internalised Romanticism and hence the phrases, ideas, allusions pop up unconsciously in whatever she is writing.
While most of the poems deal with ordinary, everyday and familiar subjects such as love, loss, friendship, grief, motherhood, etc., Wasim is also conscious of the social issues and the discontent among people, especially those who migrate to the West and lose their identity, which she expresses in “East and West”:
What is the life
Of the children of the East
Born in the West
Caught between opposing cultures
They walk a precarious path
Losing their identity or their selves
Whichever way they turn
Stranded in a no-man’s land.
Then there are the poems that are intensely personal, expressing her personal emotions and feelings like “It ain’t no sunshine when you are gone”:
It ain’t no sunshine when you are gone
Your absence has lessened
The colours of my world
Leaving me to live out my days in dismal greys.
At the same time, she is repulsed by the senseless carnage and violence perpetrated in the name of religion as portrayed in the poem “Limbs”:
Limbs
Young and old
Lay shattered
The life blood darkening the pristine white floor
All for the love of God.
Apart from the lyrical and romantic poems, though there are not too many of them in the collection, there is some element of faith in her writings. The two poems on Qadirnagar — “Qadirnagar” (1985) and “Qadirnagar Revisited” (2021) — written more than 35 years apart, have elements of spirituality or some leaning towards it, though one cannot call it religious. Qadirnagar, an actual place in Swat which yet remains untouched by time, influenced and inspired her as a spiritual centre.
Feminism is another subject that she has touched upon; it shows her belief in the idea that women should be given more space and how men treat them. People are now more freely talking about gas-lighting and narcissistic partners.
“I think one should not just put up with that, up to a limit it is okay but then one should take a stand. Whatever happens women are blamed or asked to be more tolerant; but why should women put up with it. They should have some financial independence and have a life of their own,” Wasim expresses her views.
“What more could a girl want” depicts a woman’s broken self and what happens when she finally decides to leave a narcissistic partner:
Painfully, stitch by stitch
She put herself together
Rising above tears, and despair
To proclaim
‘I am free, body and soul free.’
The world stood shocked.
The husband, playing victim—
For how could he admit to the world
His twisted, manipulative, narcissistic self—
Garnered all the sympathy
‘Ch! Ch! How could she leave him?
Ungrateful woman! And after so long!
“Echo”, “Meltdown”, “Behind the façade of human rights” are among those that have deep meaning but make light reading.
Wasim started writing during her student days; however, in between were times when she didn’t write. “When my daughter was young, life was so hectic that there was no time to think and reflect. During those two to three years, I didn’t write even one poem.” Now after retirement from full time job, she has fewer responsibilities and more time to sit and reflect, though she still teaches part time as visiting faculty at Karachi University, she says, “This year has been very good, as during one month I have come up with 10 or 11 poems. It depends on the time and what stage of life you are at; and at each stage life has a different perspective.”
Visiting a bookstore, one would hardly find a collection of poems in English by a Pakistani writer but that does not mean that no one is writing English poetry in our country. In fact, according to Wasim, there is a tradition of English poetry in our generation, and we have poets such as Maki Qureshi, Ghazi Salahuddin, Salman Tarik Kureshi, Daud Kamal, Taufiq Rafat, etc. to name a few. Some of them like Arfa Ezazi have also read their work in literature festivals, while many people have got their work published in magazines, journals, and newspapers. Sadly, new and upcoming names are not given space in most publications and they are not taken seriously.
Yet one cannot say that there is no future of English poetry in Pakistan, there definitely is a future. People are writing but since publishing and selling is difficult, they are mostly known in their selected circle that they move around.
Wasim said that when looking around for a publisher for her book she was disappointed to learn that none of the big houses were interested, “They all said they do not publish poetry,” says Wasim. Fiction has a greater chance of being published as publishing houses such as Liberty and OUP are mostly into fiction, and publish young writers.
It is very unfortunate that nobody publishes English poetry in our country because poetry reflects serious thought and because it is shorter it is easier to read, especially in today’s scenario where people don’t want to spend time reading extensively, poetry can do a lot. In one or two pages it can be very inspiring and reflective, suggest ideas, etc.
Expressing her views, Wasim said, there is very little awareness that poetry is not something difficult or hard. People generally thinks that it is difficult to understand poetry, compared to fiction which is a story and easy to follow. Poetry is not difficult to understand and once you get into it and read more and more you begin to understand different varieties of style. Now it is not English literature but literatures in English and Pakistani literature is making a name for itself.
When asked about her favourite poets, Wasim says even as a student, like many of us used to copy lines from here and there in our notebooks, she used to copy down lines from Shelley and Wordsworth, etc. Romantic Poets have appealed to her from her student life as they basically talk about things we can relate to—nature, feeling, and emotions.
As someone who has spent more than 30 years teaching at the English department, Wasim is not too happy with the students joining the department these days. “We have some very good students because they are interested in literature and have language and writing skills but, unfortunately, the majority of the students believe that they will learn the language. Some of the students write fiction but very few write poetry. Some of them are good at fiction writing and may develop into good writers if they pursue it. But the majority can’t write a complete straight sentence.”
A Karachiite by birth, she has lived in Peshawar, Warsak, and Jordan due to her father’s postings as he was in the air force, before the family settled in Karachi after his retirement. After doing her O’ levels from St Joseph’s school and Intermediate from St Joseph’s college, she joined Karachi University for BA (Hons). After doing her Masters from Karachi University, she taught O’ levels for almost six years at Dawood Public school. She was lucky to be appointed at KU as soon as the appointments opened after six years. Though she retired in 2021, she takes a few classes as visiting faculty at KU and goes there two days a week. “I have become the senior-most teacher, all the faculty, even the chair all are my students,” she laughs. Along with Shakir, she has also edited an anthology of poems by the Karachi University alumnus of the English department and is currently working on its second edition.
Rizwana Naqvi is a freelance journalist and tweets @naqviriz; she can be reached at naqvi2012rizwana@hotmail.co.uk
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