Mona Bedi

Aurora

My father was not a poet, but he loved reading poetry. His friends often gifted him books of Urdu shayari. On long, sultry evenings, he would read the verses aloud to me. He knew how to read and write Urdu fluently, and listening to him stirred my curiosity about the language.

One summer vacation, I asked him to teach me Urdu. Patiently, letter by letter, word by word, he did. Slowly, I began to master Urdu. Yet one thing still eluded me—the art of reciting a nazam.*

morning twilight
a koel's song breaks
the dawn
I too hum a couplet
to welcome the day

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Author’s Note: a nazam is an Urdu couplet.

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About the Author

Mona Bedi is a medical doctor in Delhi, India. She has published two books of poetry, they you and me and dancing moonlight, and her haiku and senryu have been published in Failed Haiku, Haiku in Action, The Haiku Dialogue, cold moon journal, tsuri-doro, and many others. She lives with her husband, two children, and a dog.

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