WA S P S I N A GOLDEN DREAM HUM A STRANGE MUSIC poetry by Asher Ghaffar
WA S P S I N A GOLDEN DREAM HUM A STRANGE MUSIC Asher Ghaffar
ECW PRESS
Copyright © Asher Ghaffar, 2008 Published by ECW Press 2120 Queen St. East, Suite 200, Toronto, Ontario, m4e 1e2 416•694•3348 /
[email protected] All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any process — electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise — without the prior written permission of the copyright owners and ECW Press. library and archives canada cataloguing in publication Ghaffar, Asher Wasps in a golden dream hum a strange music / Asher Ghaffar. Poems. isbn 978-1-55022-854-0 I. Title. ps8613.h34w37 2008
c811'.6
c2008-902417-6
Editor for the press: Michael Holmes / a misFit book Text design: Tania Craan Cover design: David Gee Cover image: iStock Type: Mary Bowness Printing: Coach House Printing This book is set in Janson and Century Expanded The publication of Wasps in a Golden Dream Hum a Strange Music has been generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $20.1 million in writing and publishing throughout Canada, by the Ontario Arts Council, by the Government of Ontario through Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit, by the OMDC Book Fund, an initiative of the Ontario Media Development Corporation, and by the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (bpidp).
printed and bound in canada
We had no doubt . . . that the heart rocked with sorrow would at last reach its port. — Faiz Ahmed Faiz
What is the future of this Word without place? — Edmond Jabès
CONTENTS
INDUCTION Genesis
3
The Master Bedroom
5
On the Question of a Borderless Body In Possible Departures Delirium
8
13
Deduction
15
DEDUCTION Introduction to a Home Vanishing Mot