20190920_theslowdown_20190920_128

Wed, 9/30 7:40PM 5:00

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

rain, poem, poetry, shahid, ali, poet, agha, repetition, monsoons, lapping, arrived, left, waves,
wading, desperate, memory, raged, daybreak, water, poetic form

00:05
I'm poet Tina Shang filling in for Tracy k Smith. And this is a slow down

00:23
the mark that poet Agha Shahid Ali left on American literature is palpable. Born in New Delhi,
India, he arrived in the United States in the 70s to deepen his studies of poetry and literature.
When I met him in the 90s, I was a college student, and just beginning my first attempts at poetry.
He was the first teacher that introduced Asian poetic forms to me, and his face, his name, his
culture, and of course, his poems carry the entire weight of his history with him. Today's poem,
even the rain is Agha Shahid Ali's most well known huzzle which is a poetic form stemming back
to seventh century Arabia. The poems magic relies on repetition and rhyme. Here are Lee focuses
his attention on Rain, rain, his memory, rain as balm, rain, even as a weapon. reading this poem,
I'm brought back to the particular reigns of Asia. When I live there not long after meeting Ali.
When I was in Taiwan, the rains arrived in the form of monsoons that beat down on my windows,
rain that collected in the narrow streets, rain that rose to the first floor windows. All night long, it
fell, and by morning, I viewed vendors wading through water to reach their stalls, lifting baskets of
food above them, to set them down on any stable surface, moving through water moving in slow
motion. poetry, and its repetition allows memory to build upon itself. The return of a phrase can
feel like waves lapping on a shore, water rushing to your feet again and again. Even the rain by
Agha Shahid, Ali, what will suffice for true love not even the rain, but he has bought griefs lottery,
but even the rain are glosses wanting in this world. Can you remember anyone? When we thought
the poet's taught even the rain after we died? That was it. God left us in the dark. And as we
forgot the dark we forgot even the rain drought was over. Where was I? drinks were on the house
for mixers my love you'd poured What? Even the rain of this pear shaped oranges perfumed twist,
I will say extract vermouth from the bergamont even the rain. How did the enemy love you with

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Earth? air and fire? He held just one thing back till he got even the rain. This is God's sight for new
house of executions. You swear by the Bible desperate. Even the rain after the bones, those
flowers. This was found in the urn, the Lost River ashes from the God even the rain. What was it to
prophecy if not the end of the world assault pillar for the lonely lot. Even the rain? How the air
raged, desperate streaming the earth with flames to help burn down my house. Fire sod even the
rain. He would raise the mountains he would level the waves he would to smooth his epic plot.
Even the rain. New York belongs at daybreak to only me, just me to make this claim memories
brought even the rain. They found the knife that killed you. But whose prints are these? No one
has such small hand shied not even the rain. The slow down is a production of American public
media in partnership with the Poetry Foundation.

20190920_theslowdown_20190920_128 Page 2 of 2 Transcribed by https://otter.ai