Poetry that shares love’s secrets

Islamabad:

Haar jayay gi zindgi laykin

Haarnay ka nheen mera ‘Yeh Ishq’

Dr Farhat’s latest poetry collection ‘Yeh Ishq’ is a collection of heartfelt reflections on the many faces of the human heart. Poetry, for him, is the only true record of our shared human journey — a journey he does not want ever to see come to an end:

Roz ka jalna aur jalana hai

Ishq se silsala purana hai

His poetry is a call to love. It is a message that love is all around us. He has both an unusual taste for love and a poet’s eye and ear for recording its secrecies and wonders. It has diverse emotions that fill the hearts of the personae as they celebrate a moment of love, capture a fragrance of it, or allow themselves to be ecstatic:

Main rahay ishq ko asan karna chahta houn

So dil ko sahib-e-eman karan chahta houn

Sab zamano makan isi mein hain

Daeroun ka hain daera ‘Yeh Ishq’

Dardmandoun se, ijz waloun se

Sab se rakhta hai raabta mera ishq

Farhat’s poetry is intended for lovers; exploring the seasons of hearts that are ablaze with love and conveying sentiments in a way that captures the human heart forcefully:

Hai kutch khareedna tu mohabbat khareed kar

Khidmat se naam, naam se izzat khareed kar

Some verses explore themes of a love that is spiritual, when the heart looks heavenward, like a baby lifting its face towards a mother:

Muj ko Mansur log kehtay hain

Main houn Farahat, mera khuda mera ishq

At times, Farhat presents love in a free-flowing form. From attraction to deeper aspects of love — the raw and sometimes wild emotions that grow from just a single glance. Some phrases are grandiose. Others reveal the affection of a person lost in the stormy world of love:

Phalay hain saray shehr mein kissay ajeeb se

Guzra hai jab bhe phool sa chehra qareeb se

Farhat’s diction is celebratory, each poem a valuable breath, short and succinct. There is a simplicity of style that is deceptive, veiling the depths of the currents that run through the verses:

Shehr waloun nein bhujayay hain mohabbat kay charagh

Main inehein phir se jalaoun ga chala jaoun ga

This is the kind of poetry that speaks directly to the place in our hearts where we are most deeply human:

Os ne dekhay hee naheen mehromohabbat wallay

Os se kehna keh kabhi hum se bhi mil kar dekhay

Overall, I found this collection of poetry to be a rollercoaster that took me through an entire emotional spectrum with ups and downs that differed from verse to verse:

Kia hua gar hai purkhata mera ishq

Parsa main, na parsa mera ishq