- Moroccan scenes
- Palestine Gallery
- To Come
- To Come
- Hajj poems
- Poems from Japan
Ennui
Her letterflutters lightly
in my hand.
Each page conveys
a sigh of sentiment,
a dissipated breeze
that soothes the
surface of an
ornamental pool
but shies away
from any gross
particularity.
In Tarifa at noontime,
even the hibiscus
is exhausted.
First published in Blue Minaret.
Three Poems from al-Andalus
In the tidy marina,the tide is going out.
My last image of her
tugs at its mooring.
I pause on a slope
of the Alpujarras.
The wide sky can't
encompass my loss.
A hooded crow calls
two hours before fajr.
The engraver has come,
desperate for epitaphs.
First published in NOON: journal of the short poem.
Qisma
The wind arriveswith sleeves rolled up.
All day it stirs
the cauldron of the sky.
As thunder boils,
the clouds explode.
Each raindrop falls
to its appointed place.
First published in Vox Poetica, under the title Kismet.
Kabul
All decisions are madeat a desk in another country.
They pass through
'in' and 'out' trays,
collecting signatures along the way.
Then, one day,
they become a concrete wall,
where once a few
tired weeds grew.
Afghanistan, 2017.
First published in Blue Minaret.
Alan Ireland
Alan Ireland is an English-born New Zealand poet who lives in Palmerston North. Since leaving England in 1960, he has spent time in Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, India, and Malaysia, among other countries. These poems, which explore various aspects of the Islamic sensibility, have appeared in various literary magazines over the years. Alan Ireland, who is also known by the Muslim name Adil, published his first collection of poems, Micro Poems, in 2017. Insha'Allah, there will be more.
URL: http://www.kiwicrafts.com
Email: adilbookz (at) yahoo.com