About the Author
Abdul Jamil Urfi has been writing since his college days. Although a firm believer in the philosophy that poetry can only be written in one’s native language, he nevertheless started writing poetry in English, some of which he managed to get published in journals like Skylark, Vayavya, Borderless Journal and New Asian Writing. During the Covid lockdown he collected all his poems which has resulted in this volume, ‘Shouting at the Dead’.
Teaser
Kati Patang (The broken kite)
It all seems to come out from a poem:
Clusters of houses grouped into mohallas,
only a few open spaces. The dusty, dirty town
surprisingly has very little vegetation
except for a few gnarled trees.
One has a kite stuck in its branches
—the proverbial kati patang.
Deeply entangled. Meshed up. Broken.
And situated deep within barren branches,
a little green bird, the Coppersmith Barbet,
hardly visible, calling out tooot tooot tooot
Sounding like a hammer beating on iron.
Very metallic. Very sharp but
a bit subdued, because it is winter.
Contents
46 poems