Gulnaz a poetess from India
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~ apple pathways ~
a poetess in the land of spice
As I was wandering around blogs, I came across ~Apple Pathways~ a personal journal interspersed with poetry. This blog is of a young woman and her name is Gulnaz Sheikh. Her name means, a flower to be proud of. It is an Urdu/Persian name. Quite frankly her name reminded me of the legendary Moguls, in the land of spice, India where she lives. To me it was her poetry that lured me to read her blog as I wished to know more about the person behind ~Apple Pathways~.
From an earlier journal
curled yellow leaves,
scattered on the still wet ground.
remains of the storm last night
......
sunflowers in a vase,
catch the falling sun through the window.
while she sleeps at her desk
......
early spring morning,
rustling leaves and dancing sunbeams.
kitty goes looking for breakfast
.......
Gulnaz said, “ The first poem I wrote was when I was 16 and it was to express my angst at being caught in a situation which was stifling and from which I could not escape. I have lost that poem but I really liked it. It was different from what I write now. However I did not realize I was writing poetry, as far as I was concerned I was just putting my feelings to paper, it took others to point out that it was poetry”. “To me poetry begins in a moment, which sits itself down in my head and then talks to me.” She sounded like reciting a poetic verse as she explained how she writes
from her peotry collection
Even though English is not her first language, but she writes in English and she explained the reason why she writes in English “perhaps because I started to think in this language, even as a kid although it was not the first language spoken at home. My parents would bring me storybooks as I loved reading and they were usually in English, I think that is how it started.” Though she does not write in her mother tongue still langue has certain of influence on her, as she summarized her thoughts about it “Since I believe sensuality is about the senses and how the mind perceives those sensations, I would not associate a language with them but certain sensations are related to the place and certain sensations are expressed just so, in certain words but I haven’t used Hindi or Urdu words yet in my poems but I am aware of their idioms and I am sure they affect my perceptions. I want to add here that I don’t know many languages (sadly) but I am a sucker for the spoken word and I love the sounds of different languages and I enjoy hearing dialects and accents and reading poetry and literature from other countries.”
Gulnaz has not had any training in writing. Somehow to me I feel that her writing takes inspiration from Haiku, where the stress is on incorporating nature with few words only. It seems to strongly reflect on her poetry, as she affirms in her own words “I just know how to enjoy poetry and to appreciate it. Personally I feel comfortable using fewer words to create my images, though I love the poems, which are constructed differently from mine. Well each poem is different and all I hope with all of them is that they would touch some corner in the reader’s heart and mind. If I am able to do that, I feel I have achieved something”. I approached with an unexpected question, whether India inspires Gulnaz to write “ Apart from the spices, which I love and the legends, which I don’t know much about, there is so much more to India, in its now, in its here and that is what I know as part of my existence. I have not stayed elsewhere but I suppose writing is not merely place-specific, it is how the place acts on you”, with pride she explained.
Dry windswirling motes of dust
Cover me
......
Rustling silk
She leans forward
He murmurs
......
Pale fingerscounting prayer-beads
Sins un-numbered
......
He watches her,
Storm rages at the window
She turns over
......
I asked how did her poetry reached out to the readers, in her simple words she told me “My writing has found its readers only because of the World Wide Web. Also because of the net, I have come across the writings of other people, which I thoroughly enjoy. Just take a walk down the link section on my blog and you will know what I mean.”
Her final words inspired me as she took a moment to address those who would like to explore poetry, “Being an amateur myself, I’m in no position to advise anyone so all I would say is instead of copying someone just listen to your own heart” Gulnaz spoke, with a soft tone of encouragement as we ended our conversation.
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~Apple Pathways~
