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Arts & Culture, Multimedia, Special Features, VideosSeptember 10, 2015

Voices in Verse Vol. 1: ‘When Your Body Smiles’

Finalist and winner Orooj-e-Zafar performs her winning poem, ‘When Your Body Smiles’. She tied with Risham Amjad when our panel of judges which included TMS contributor and poet Ilona Yusuf and Editor-in-Chief Maryam Piracha, in addition to Assistant Fiction Editor Sauleha Kamal, and Radio DJ Yumna Haas, couldn’t decide between both performances and talent on display.

‘Voices in Verse’ is a series designed to create a platform for performance poetry and dramatic readings in Pakistan and in other parts of the world, where opportunities like these are limited. We aim to include as many styles as possible and though this particular incarnation was limited to writers under 30, we will be expanding to the country’s two other metropolises – Lahore and Karachi – before the year’s up.

The magazine’s offline activities began with creative writing workshops, expanded to word game nights, with poetry slams the latest form of engagement with the wider readership and audience. We are also looking to add an additional component in our workshops when we restart in early 2016.

You can read Orooj’s poem below. The poem is forthcoming in Slim Volume: This Body I Live In from Pankhearst (November 2015).

[box title=”‘When Your Body Smiles'” style=”soft” box_color=”#9a0c0c”]

when your body smiles,
your back doesn’t need lifting from its monoamine-deprived
slouch; your nose carries its pride higher to meet the head
you’re always leaving in the clouds–
your daydreams are creamier,
waterfall-fresh out of peace.

there’s a part of you between your eyes making room
for your heartbeat; you don’t remember the last
time the curtains were drawn here.

when your body smiles, your shoulders
straighten to let your wishbones kiss
before they pressure-drop your lungs
and breathe
with more chestfuls that they can take
like your first
teary-eyed respiratory
effort; the ache to remember
what it is to be alive,
is just as beautiful today.

your eyes won’t droop with death looming behind
your head nor will sleep be running on the corner
down left to knock you out. for a while too long to be called, soon
you can swoon at your eyes not meeting
the scorch of the sun, always ready
forever destined to embrace the sky
before you can, without wincing.

your battlefield is finally at eye-level and your body
forgives the fatigue in your fingers,
kissing their effort with the tongue of acceptance
not once reminding you of where you could have been
if you were just housing a better-maintained body;

when your body smiles, the spine of your accent
braid stands taller with foreign strands still united
to protect your weary mind.

my mind is not weary today,
do you see this body convexing instead of
closing in on itself?
I am not weary today.

when my body smiles, I am waking
to a day constructing bulwarks
against me only
to prove that the day,
if never the sky, cannot
be anything
but mine.

[/box]

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Previous articleVoices in Verse Vol. 1: ‘Conversations With A Reluctant Feminist’
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  1. Poems You Should Read Based On Your Zodiac Sign | Thought Catalog says:
    June 14, 2016 at 8:14 PM

    […] So how about not only discovering a new poet, but also stretching your vocabulary with a slew of medical words you never thought could be used so beautiful? Unearth the siren voice of Orooj-e-Zafar as she schools you on How Your Body Smiles: […]

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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.

Read previous post:
Voices in Verse Vol. 1: ‘Conversations With A Reluctant Feminist’

Finalist and winner Risham Amjad performs her winning poem, 'Conversations With A Reluctant Feminist'. She tied with Orooj-e-Zafar when our panel...

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