After You by Agha Shahid Ali
the world did go on, unashamed, after you
Article voiceover
After You
by Agha Shahid Ali 1
We are left mute and so much is left unnamed after you— No one is left in this world to be blamed after you. Someone has disappeared after christening Bertha— Shahid, will a hurricane ever be named after you? Now from Miami to Boston Bertha is breaking her bones— I find her in the parking lot. She says, “I’m blamed after you.” The Deluge would happen—it was claimed—after you But the world did go on, unashamed, after you ANDREW BERTHA CHARLES DAVID ELLA FLOYD GEORGE but S comes so late in the alphabet that although SHAHID DEVASTATES FLORIDA is your dream headline, no hurricane will ever be named after you.
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Call Me Ishmael Tonight (2004, W.W. Norton)
Oh. Love this, especially the last “couplet.” Oh, and the reading was sublime.
I so love this manipulation of the ghazal form. So many contemporary ghazals forget the naming part in the closing couplet. This ghazal doubles down on the use of names in the form, especially in the closing couplet, which 'breaks' the form a bit with the longer lines. And the implications with the storms are brilliant. I could go on and on about why this poem works for me. Thanks so much for sharing, and I'm excited about this Substack page. I love engaging in conversations about great poems. Social reading is such an important part of the process for extroverted writers like me.