Stars falling from the sky

When the cold wind blows in my face
And I see the orange and yellow autumn leaves fall
It is then that I am bewildered here
and I gather all my sighs,

but when the first snow flakes fell on my shoulder
it was like shining stars falling from the sky

This extract is from the poem Edinburgh by Shaista Asad who is one of the poets taking part in Mushaira, a celebration of Scottish Asian poetry, in McDonald Road Library on Saturday 18 October. Mushaira encourages participants to write and perform in their own language but Shaista has sent us this poem in English written while she was sitting in Princes Street Gardens. Click on more to read the full poem.

EDINBURGH!!!!!

A beautiful new city, that I have tied new bonds with
Ties of my heart and my soul,
A deep relation that I have developed
with the colourful flowers
As I talk my emotions out to them
I get affection and love showers

As I look back I have left all loved ones behind
All my people , my streets, my childhood playground behind
As if for the time being I have broken all my ties with them

For the people here on the roads and streets
I often find a friendly greet
For a minute it feels, I am home again
The feeling comes and goes again

When the cold wind blows in my face
And I see the orange and yellow autumn leaves fall
It is then that I am bewildered here
and I gather all my sighs,

but when the first snow flakes fell on my shoulder
it was like shining stars falling from the sky

I can still picture it, like a memory
glued on a photo in my mind
and again my heart and my soul
were filled with happy sighs
Shaista Asad

Poets from all over the UK are invited to take part in Mushaira, a tradition of poetry reading from the Indo-Pak sub-continent which stretches back several hundred years.

The next event is an evening of Urdu literary and music evening during the Edinburgh Festival of Libraries on Saturday 8 November in McDonald Road Library from 7.30pm.

For more information about Mushaira, and to hear poems in other languages, click here