Afshan Shafi
An interview with YPL founder, poet Michael Cirelli.
On Saturday, September 28, 2024 at the Alhamra Art Center, Pakistan’s first-ever National Youth Poets Laureate were announced, one in English (Aiman Tahir Khan) and one in Urdu (Mashallah Saif). The event featured performances from 19 finalist poets, ages 18-25, selected from a group of more than 1,400 applicants. Additionally, these poets were published in an anthology, JASHN, and the two winners will travel to Washington D.C. in April to perform at the U.S. National Youth Poet Laureate Commencement. The program in Pakistan is the first international program of the National Youth Poet Laureate Program in the U.S. that supports laureates in more than 100 cities and states. The finalist in English, Aiman Tahir Khan, is a 21-year-old poet from Lahore, Pakistan. Her work has been published in literary journals including Wildness, Rust & Moth, and Last Leaves. Aiman’s poems present a bold, spiritual quality that treats personal history as a resonant space of retrieval and belonging. The finalist, in Urdu, Mashallah Saif. is a 25-year-old poet from Lahore, Pakistan. Her work broods upon existential themes, psychological issues, and women. Apart from poetry, Mashallah enjoys writing scripts, photography, filmmaking and acting. Mashallah also writes in Punjabi to promote Punjabi culture and language. She holds a B.A. Hons degree in Urdu literature from Government College University Lahore. Mashallah’s poems use traditional forms irreverently, upturning expectations from the ghazal, for example. Additionally, the finalists of YPL Pakistan have completed portfolios of their poetry, as part of the YPL program, which display sensibilities far beyond their years. The Aleph Review spoke to the dynamic YPL founder and inspiring poet, Michael Cirelli, on his foray into the landscape of Pakistani poetics and the journey thus far.
What were your expectations from the young poets of Pakistan prior to meeting the contestants?
Our programs are always aimed at celebrating and elevating the voices of young poets, so we didn’t really have any expectations from the poets. Our goal was to create a platform to showcase the incredible talent of young Pakistani poets. We knew that the talent was there, so our work is to create a community amongst the poets, networks to support the poets, and institutions to amplify the voices of the poets.
Were you familiar with any Pakistani poetry before the advent of the program? Or any works in translation?
Yes, the I am a fan of many of the legendary Pakistani poets, as well as the new and emerging poets from Pakistan. We want to honor the tradition and legacy of poetry in Pakistan, while creating spaces and platforms for the next generations of writers to thrive.
Did you notice any themes emerging from the poets as a collective?
More so than themes, we were impressed by the inventiveness, the ‘freshness’ and originality of the young poets in Pakistan. They are advancing the form and craft, while still oftentimes honouring the tradition and lineage. Themes amongst young poets can span from family to God, love to angst, however, the true magic in the work is always in how these poets address those themes, and so much of it was spellbinding.
What were some surprises along the journey of the laureate program in Pakistan? Were there any significant challenges along the way?
We were and weren’t surprised by how we were welcomed and supported across the country. I am grateful to have experienced Pakistani hospitality many times, but for colleges and universities, institutions, and organizations to welcome such a broad and ambitious vision with open arms, was refreshing. In the U.S., it took nearly a decade for this program to catch on, and we were able to successfully launch in Pakistan in just 18-months.
The eloquence and confidence of the poets on the commencement ceremony stage was noteworthy. What was the process of encouraging and polishing these young voices like?
This was one of the cornerstones of our program—to support the growth and build the confidence of the youth that we work with. To that end, after the finalists were selected, we paired them with professional Pakistani poets and artists to help support their growth as writers and performers. For us, the mentorship piece was the real ‘prize’, and we were also grateful for the openness and commitment of the Pakistani mentors who worked with these young poets.
You’ve spoken and written about the spirituality evident in a lot of poetry from this region. Do you see a spiritual thread continuing through the work of younger poets or do you sense a more personal approach to the poem?
I think the work of these poets spanned across many themes, but there were spiritual and religious threads running through the work of many of the poets. What was most impressive though, was that even the poems with religious or spiritual undertones, the work was always fresh and inventive. The poets approached universal themes or traditional themes with new eyes, with an approach that really represented a dynamic, new voice of Pakistani poetry.
What are your hopes for the young laureates after the end of each year?
Our goal moving forward is to make this program, and the work of these young laureates, to be as ubiquitous across Pakistan as it is in the U.S. There, the Youth Poets Laureates are impossible to ignore, and our institutions here have no other choice but to welcome and celebrate these powerful poet-leaders. We are currently working to ensure that these youth poets are given spots at all the major Pakistani literature festivals, convenings, and in literary journals, like this one.
YPL finalist poems in English and Urdu:
How can you write about flowers at a time like this?
Aiman Tahir Khan
After Hanif Abdurraqib Find something new to cry about, my Co-star app tells me at an odd hour of the night while I am missing something I never held & I wonder—must I always be crying?
I would like to dance for a change. The curry leaf tree in the lawn has bent
after heavy monsoon prayer. Bird skeletons are falling from the sky & I fear my life
is happening inside a bookstore in a foreign country, words chattering in an alien language. I open one & begin to read a love poem by someone I once loved,
stumbling over a line about a starling. How dots streaked across its broken body. Our world is filled with broken bodies & I have come to recognise love
only by its absence. Under a weeping mulberry, I remember the sound of a wobbly matchstick being scratched against a box wringing wet—me, unable to light
my first cigarette. Wanting to stub it out on my wrist. A hush, muffled rasping. Did you know that a collection of starlings is called a murmuring? & sometimes
it is also a chattering. My best friend, when she paints, stores the leftover color in plastic seashells she bought with her terrible haggling skills. Once, alone
in her room, I held a bright green one to my ear & I swear, for a moment, I heard the waves crashing in. The summer my mother stopped praying for me, I decided
to make flowers every time I felt sad instead of burning my arms & I ended up growing a garden inside my room. Not all of us are going to change the world. Some of us are
just blooming momentarily & I know flowers are of no use when fire is raining from above, but I can only write about this for now. You are no longer here
& in a poem, I have found a way to survive. A poem is a murmuring is a chattering is a wave crashing in is a blooming momentarily is a fire raining from above. Look,
the world is a child’s lost slipper washing ashore, but people are people, & we keep finding new things to sing amidst the wreckage. We must always be singing.
Ghazal Mashallah Saif غزل
تیرا رستہ دیکھ لیا
یعنی صحرا دیکھ لیا
آنکھ کھلی تو میں نے
بھی ایک ستارہ دیکھ لیا
آنکھیں دیکھ کے کہتے
ہو تم نے دریا دیکھ لیا
بھیڑ کے بیچ و بیچ
اسے میں نے تنہا دیکھ
لیا
کہیں بھی میرا نام
نہیں پتہ پتہ دیکھ لیا
Aiman Tahir Khan is a 21-year-old poet from Lahore, Pakistan. Her work explores the spaces that exist between us, the people we love, and the world. In her free time, Aiman enjoys making crochet flowers, which often inspire her work. Her work has been published in literary journals including Wildness, Rust & Moth, and Last Leaves. Aiman recently graduated with a degree in Political Science and she hopes to one day write a poem half as good as her tweets.
Mashallah Saif is a 25-year-old poet from Lahore, Pakistan. Her work explores existential themes, psychological issues, and women. In addition to poetry, Mashallah enjoys writing scripts, photography, filmmaking and acting. Mashallah also writes in Punjabi to promote Punjabi culture and language. She holds a B.A. Hons degree in Urdu literature from Government College University Lahore
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