Woman by the Door
Coming together in this knitted collage are poems rooted in lived experiences and saturated with the poet’s varied sensibilities and influences. The poems flow through three sections – Aperture explores poems of memory and family, Portal opens the door to transition and growth, Detours holds our hand through loss and ache. The woman herself is an intersection, always kneeling by the door – coming, going, waiting, leaning in. Witnessing. Relentlessly she receives and offers lifetimes. Woman by the Door is ultimately preoccupied with paying tribute to that woman.
Crushed Anthills
My Chapbook
This chapbook is a collection of poems about cities, memories – each memory an anthill that leads to colonies that are deep, a complex maze to unravel.
Shelling Peanuts and Stringing Words
FOREWORD BY FARHAN AKHTAR
It is a known fact that I love what I do in all aspects of my creative life. However, if asked to choose there are two things that I am most passionate about; words, both written and spoken and my social initiative MARD – Men against Rape and Discrimination. With your widespread support over the last 5 years, MARD has travelled to nearly 150 cities creating empowerment through our concerts.
How did Shelling Peanuts and Stringing Words make it’s connection with me?
The six soul stirring poems in the section called pedagogy of permissions are devoted to the voice of a woman. The themes hover around topics related to the dignity of the girl, virginity, rape and self -respect. I believe voices like this need to be unstoppable and my full throated encouragement is offered to Kashiana for stringing words that create a dialogue within homes and between mothers and daughters. MARD is all about reaching out through a 360 degree artist connection and Kashiana’s collection nurtures a similar concept
How do I view Kashiana’s writing?
Kashiana’s poetry is refreshing in the honest representation of personal loss, longing and heartache, world order and day to day portraits. Pictorial enough, yet leaving space to allow interpretation through the reader’s own motif ’s, her poetry is both the mirror and the image itself.
In that respect, I related to her work in light of what I do every day – seek, listen and tell stories.
Shelling Peanuts and Stringing Words, my debut poetry collection published in January 2019 is my voice as a participant and an observer of life. I have dared to dip into very vulnerable and personal contexts while explore the shifting tectonic plates of the world outside of my suburban existence.
READ AN EXCERPT
Epitaph – 26 children of war
Apple of our eyes, stay forever sweet
Born to be a poem, your rhyming thirteen years
Ceremonial colors in life, death richer red
Dancing footsteps tiny free, glide across azure sky
Even today she waits, warm muffin in hand
Freedom is now yours, you smile toothless
Greeted by bullets, my womb became your casket
Hope you are somewhere kind, you deserved not macabre dead
Imminent scholar boy, your books will wait your turn
Just your little finger clasp, preserves my breath
Keep your friends company, sing aloud in unison
Lofty goals did not save my child, I cannot forgive
Monstrous wails of your mother, will miss you angel
Never lose your crayons, draw a clear blue sky son
Only yesterday I bought you a kite, I buried it today
Put your head to the pillow, you deserve rest
Quote to the universe, the hymn of a butterfly
Refugee child you went to the sea, the Arc set you free
Stringing snipers bombs, was not how I planned your life
Theater to the world’s script, you acted your part with a smile
Under a starless sky, I will look at you my pole star
Veins overflow with terror, she still sings you a lullaby
Wiki returns blood in response, Syria your children we mourn
X ray films show a dark shadow, your tiny bones are already ash
You never learned to call me Baba, we taught you syllables of war
Zaara, you barely blossomed, the earth longed your scent
Kashiana 