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Alone in Babel, Arts & CultureJuly 11, 2014

Semi-finals: Pakistan-Laos

PREAMBLE

Given The Missing Slate’s strong roots in Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore, we’ve been thinking of Pakistan as the ‘home team’ during this Poetry World Cup. As Brazil showed on Tuesday evening, things can go disastrously wrong for home teams during world cup semi-finals, and Pakistan may well be nervous ahead of today’s meeting with Laos. Of course, the difference is that our competition isn’t really about winning or losing, and (to the best of our knowledge) no one’s about to take to the streets in protest at the result. As Socrates (the Brazilian footballer, not the Greek philosopher) wrote in his autobiography, ‘Beauty comes first. Victory is secondary. What matters is joy.’ Right?

MEET THE POETS

Mehvash Amin is currently editor-in-chief of HELLO! Pakistan, and was editor of lifestyle magazine Libas International for 11 years. Her poetry has been published in an anthology, ‘Tangerine in the Sun’, and in a number of international magazines, including Vallum and Sugar Mule. ‘Karachi’, the poem chosen to represent Pakistan in the Poetry World Cup, was among The Missing Slate’s Pushcart nominees last year.

Bryan Thao Worra has previously represented Laos as a Cultural Olympian during the 2012 Poetry Parnassus, and was involved in the SatJaDham Lao Literary Project, promoting the work of Laotian and Hmong writers and artists. In addition to his poetry, he writes experimental fiction drawing on a variety of influences, including sci-fi and horror.

ROUTE TO THE SEMI-FINALS

Both countries have been hugely impressive, racking up a series of comfortable victories on their way to the semis. Laos haven’t been pushed by any of their opponents (Lebanon, Iran and India), and their vote total in the quarter-finals was the highest of the competition so far. Pakistan came through a high-scoring opening game with Ghana, received a bye through the second round after Anatoly Kudryavitsky chose to withdraw from the competition, and finished 23 votes ahead of Scotland in the quarters.

                         

Karachi

We must learn to quarter fear,
dice it, serve it on plates
in manageable portions.

Instead, it is etched like
a hologram against the sky,
starting out of the sockets

of buses burnt on the road,
where they root
like indestructible fungi…

~ Mehvash Amin

Read the full poem 

Dreamonstration

Given a thousand nights,
Can you master even a single word?
Or a dream, a tool, a brain?

Open roads, discover ways,
Flow down a stream, slash at ignorance
With ink and a scrap of paper from a poet’s bag.

Do you ever recall that demons are easy,
But dogs are difficult, even if you have the knack?…

~ Bryan Thao Worra

Read the full poem

 

RESULT: Pakistan won by 137 votes

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Previous articlePoetry World Cup: Meet the semi-finalists
Next articlePoetry World Cup Final: Singapore-Pakistan

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One last love letter...

April 24, 2021

It has taken us some time and patience to come to this decision. TMS would not have seen the success that it did without our readers and the tireless team that ran the magazine for the better part of eight years.

But… all good things must come to an end, especially when we look at the ever-expanding art and literary landscape in Pakistan, the country of the magazine’s birth.

We are amazed and proud of what the next generation of creators are working with, the themes they are featuring, and their inclusivity in the diversity of voices they are publishing. When TMS began, this was the world we envisioned…

Though the magazine has closed and our submissions shuttered, this website will remain open for the foreseeable future as an archive of the great work we published and the astounding collection of diverse voices we were privileged to feature.

If, however, someone is interested in picking up the baton, please email Maryam Piracha, the editor, at maryamp@themissingslate.com.

Farewell, fam! It’s been quite a ride.

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Poetry World Cup: Meet the semi-finalists

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