Shamim Reza Selected Poems

Shamim Reza's poetry expresses the song of a people that seeks to live in peace and harmony; it is baroque poetry that invites us to dream of the time of the sacred and the beauty of its elements from a foot to the waters of a river. The eroticism of the poetry of Shamim Reza reminds me of the eroticism of the poetry of Octavio Paz, a great love poet and cultist of literary eroticism that he, precisely, discovered in the poetic tradition of Hindustan. Poetry is universal and communicates and unites cultures: Shiva and Parvati/the woman who is my wife and I/ask you for nothing, nothing/that comes from the other world:/only the light on the sea,/the barefoot light on the sleeping land and sea. (“Invocation”, Octavio Paz). Accordingly, Shamim writes, Porani, please, come out of the embroidered quilt; I am/blue-throated /Shiva in love;/My throat is pierced with poison; the stony palace has/exhausted me…/Who is that beloved living inside me? The verses of Shamim Reza have a similar resonance of eternal human instinct and values to Octavio Paz. Enrique Bernales Poet and Professor at the University of Northern Colorado, USA