Doubts, Fears and Optimism

Shahida Yousaf

He has built lyrical echoes and beats with falling and rising rhythm and regular and irregular patterns. Soft and suggestive tones and over-accentuated whispers can often be heard in his poetry. In Sahar Asaar, he has shown his control over the genre of ghazal. His ghazals are brimming with excitement of romance, exoti quests and soul-stirring evocations:

آنکھوں کا رنگ بات کا لہجہ بدل گیا
وہ شخص ایک شام میں کتنا بدل گیا
 

His ghazals are a constant reminder of exotic and inevitable betrayals in human life:

ہر بات جانتے ہوئے دل مانتا نہ تھا
ہم جانے اعتبار کے کس مرحلے میں تھے
 

One of his long narrative poems Main Nai Daikha Usay is a real work of art. This has been written in a mythic mode and carries an air of mystery in it. It brings forth a romantic and intense memory of few bright moments with all the alliterating references of one evening. He is not stuck in the cul-de-sac of the past. He is able to revive and recapture every grain of his memory with symbolic richness. His style is sufficiently flexible to the tone and mood of underlying thought. He delicately shifts the metre to convey the spirit of meanings.

اپنی ان خوشنما جھیل سی خواب آنکھوں میں
پھیلی اداسی .... چھپاتے چھپاتے بہت تھک چکی ہو
.... میں نے اس سے کہا ....
 

Throughout the poem his ideas and thoughts remain coherent. He has handled the theme very passionately. Still there are several points of estrangement when the reader feels that the continuity has been broken:

مگر یہ بھی سب بعد کی بات ہے
 

For him, past is not a metaphor of dead-locked frustrations. His belief is too strong to be shaken by doubts, fears and distraction constantly hanging like a sword on human destiny. His poetry out-shines the glooming controversies and uncertainties. He has the will and faith to venture forth into the 21st century as a torch-bearer of hope and optimism.

Amjad Islam Amjad has not written from an isolated Ivory Tower. His poetry is a rich optimistic and communicative force amidst the irrelevant and unintelligible jargon of our burgeoning urban life – thereby stirring basic emotions and feelings.