Ariadne’s Notes:  The World Poetry Café Radio Show with host Ariadne Sawyer and guest host Ruth Kozak , super engineer Victor Schwartzman and special volunteer Sharon Rowe welcomed the talented Fauzia Rafique February 23, 1-2 pm PST on CFRO, 100.5 FM.  Also featured were pianist and composer Satoko Fujii calling in from Japan (courtesy of  Braithwaite & Katz ) and featured e-poet Icis C. Benjamin, originally from Antigua with his poem Mandela. Both will be featured separately on site.

To HEAR THE SHOW, CLICK HERE!

A South Asian Canadian writer of fiction and poetry, Fauzia Rafique writes in English, Punjabi and Urdu. Her second novel ‘The Adventures of SahebaN: Biography of a Relentless Warrior’ is being launched by Libros Libertad in November 2016 while her third novel ‘Triple’ is being considered by a publisher for 2017. She was recognized in 2012 by peer group WIN Canada as ‘Distinguished Poet & Novelist’ for her first novel ‘Skeena’ (Libros Libertad 2011) and the first chapbook of English and Punjabi poems ‘Passion Fruit/Tahnget Phal’ (Uddari Books 2011). Her eBook of poems ‘Holier Than Life’ was published in 2013. Earlier, she edited an anthology of writings of women of South Asian origin, ‘Aurat durbar: The Court of Women’ (Toronto 1995). In Pakistan, Fauzia worked as a journalist and screenwriter.

Through creative writing, blogging and community development work Fauzia supports freedom of expression and equality. In 2013, she declined Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal to protest against Canadian Government and British Monarchy for refusing to meet hunger-striking Native Canadian leaders. She publishes blogs on Punjabi literature, blasphemy and honor killings. She is a co-founder and the coordinator of Surrey Muse, an interdisciplinary art and literature presentation group that meets every month in Surrey since 2011.

Fauzia is working on a collection of her poems, a novel, and, on a translation of a Greek poets’ anthology from English to Punjabi and Urdu.

Good news…’ by Fauzia Rafique

i moved
to a place with a thick
patch of lush green trees
a block or so from me
fenced in exploration
was trespassing but
it was there on my way
home a privilege
to walk by hear the birds
chirp play fly
some squirrels rats
signs of hedgehogs
all kinds of people offencing
the fence
a lovely spring and
then the summer arrived
flowering bushes and blackberries
sprawled out of the fence
burying it in a cover
of color and nutrition
one morning
my neighborhood sounded
too busy for itself
heavy equipment moved in
and in the next four days
the trees were cut thrashed
raised to the ground, except for a couple
fronting the kgb, a decorative
marketing ploy, selling
the illusion of home
138 brand new
3-4 bedroom
1500-1750 sqft
townhomes.

Poisoned rats began to come
and die in my yard.
Birds went silent for a day
or two witnessing the deaths
we did not see.

Someone grieves, leaving signs
saying ‘i grieve’ at the scenes
of the crime. My friend, david dalley,
i grieve with you
and i demand from the city
and its developers (as they
make their money)
a tree
for a tree

a tree
for every tree

a tree
for every profit-damned earth-loving brown-ass tree

Plant it in
that neighborhood
as you make
your money.
A Tree For A Tree!

Fauzia Rafique (C) All rights reserved. Copy write is the author’s.