Rooms Are Never Finished: Poems

the lines are drawn on the page so vividly, each word tells a story. i wish to god that he would have had more time. another book will follow this in 2003 (poets & writers magazine), and then...silence. grab the chance to get to know this amazing writer.

I think Shahid Ali is the only person in the world whose book jacket features quotes by Anthony Hecht and Michael Palmer. It's a tribute to the kind of poet he became. And we miss him already.His language is so eerie and unbelievable because he really did bring the cadences, literariness (and penchant for grief and drama) of Urdu into English. In this sense, every one of his poems is an expert translation--across continents, physical and otherwise.The book is dominated by two intense long sequences, one in which the poet accompanies his mother's body to back to Kashmir, and the closing sequence--dynamic!--in which, paralyzed by grief over his mother's death (and his own illness) Shahid communes with the departed spirit of James Merrill.Shahid was a magnificent poet, and a magnificent man. Often reviews focus on his romance with bringing the Ghazal into English, or assign him a role as a "new formalist,"--which (I understand) he hated to be called--however, his true (and secret) gift is only the "multiply exiled" (to borrow Shahid's phrase) could have: a deep understanding of the "words behind the words."We miss you, Shahid. From his last book: "Dear Shahid...we are waiting for the almond blossoms. And, if God wills, O! those days of peace when we all were in love and the rain was in our hands whenever we met."