Sultana Raza

 Melting Chords

Serene breezes played with Nonna’s scarf, as they blew

Over the grass, making the gentle wavelets of the

Nearby stream quiver, filling the air with the subtle scent of

Nympheas. Though Nonna had gone deaf years ago;

Today, warmed by the sun, her ears heard from

Afar the whisper of the ocean, next to which she’d grown up.

Gulls are so noisy she told her puzzled grand-daughter.

 

Note: this is an acrostic poem for Sonntag (Sunday in German).

 

Previously published in Verse Virtual in September 2025

 

 

 

 

Photo Title: Tranquil River; 2024; Sultana Raza

 

Frozen Whirlwind

 

While leaving Crete, Europa

coalesced into strange dreams,

with fallen angels clinging to stained glass windows,

whirling bits of pottery replacing dervishes,

ancient columns melding into concrete glass,

flashes of sunlight sparkling through synthetic waterfalls,

magical alleyways, plastic smiles,

where books become walking talking stories,

sipping coffee, a page at a time.

 

Perhaps one is served sunlight in a glass of water.

In their previous lives,

possibly these thoughts were

concrete objects and places once.

But now they are just fragments of reality,

dancing in an idle mind.

 

As tourists try to capture unusual angles

or details overlooked by other people,

they end up documenting each other instead.

 

What is life, if not a dream?

Both according to Eastern philosophy, and

the Bard himself.

 

Note: previously published in an EU pamphlet, entitled Time for Equality in 2019.

 

Photo Title: Framing The Sun; 2024; Sultana Raza; received Special Recognition from the Light Space Time Online Galerie, https://lightspacetime.art/landscapes-art-exhibition-august-2024/

 

Swan Song

 

So full of grace she walks in beauty

on sun-drenched days simply doing her duty;

 

trailing white flowers in full bloom

of a lazy spring gone all too soon,

 

with lustrous petals all Nature’s creation,

without any artifice, or Man’s manipulation.

 

Soft, fine sand between her toes sifts

she doesn’t choke on deadly seaweed drifts.

 

She swims in beauty with a curving waist,

untouched, not bloated by toxic waste.

 

She dances in air that’s fresh and pure,

for fumes and poisons she cannot endure.

 

She soaks in flowers, gets no allergic shock

by pollen, or hay, or pink Holly Hocks.

 

She faces the sun beating mercilessly

through an ozone hole made carelessly.

 

She floats in zephyrs with her lovely train,

while she sheds tears of never-ending rain.

 

She sings of loveliness but will it last?

Is Nature’s poetry all in the past?

 

Note: Previously published in Ancient Heart Magazine in 2009:

https://ancientheartmagazine.blogspot.com/2009/04/swan-song.html

 

Optional link:

Video of Swan Song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WysvVub_onw

 

 

Photo Title: Queenly Swan; 2024; Sultana Raza