With steadfast tread I climbed triumph’s towering illusion,

Mistaking vain success for life’s sovereign culmination.

Dr. Sajid Hussain, a renowned poet from Rawalpindi, Punjab province of Pakistan shares his poetry on humanity and nature 

Dr. Sajid Hussain, born on February 1, 1969, in Morgah, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, is a distinguished poet, educator, and advocate for literature. He holds memberships in global literary organizations and has received numerous accolades, including the Shahitya Pata Award and the Rabindranath Tagore Memorial Literary Honours. He has authored acclaimed works and contributed to international anthologies. A senior Chemistry teacher and Master Trainer in “Low Cost and No Cost Science Material,” Dr. Hussain is also a homeopathic doctor and former principal. His poetry, often focused on humanity and nature, is widely published and translated. Dr. Hussain is a committed advocate for global understanding, cultural exchange, and social justice, using his platform to inspire positive change and foster dialogue. His notable works include: 1. Acquits of Life, 2. Parlance, 3. Cloud Nine Fantasia, 4. Oceanic Upwelling, 5. Waves and Rays of the Life, 6. Insight Beyond the Mists, 7. Life’s Chaos on Edge, 8. Shades of pathos. He has also contributed to and co-authored various international anthologies, including: 1. Flowers of Love, 2. Arabian Nights, 3. Poets for Peace, 4. The Candles of Hope, 5. Poetry Collection, 6. Poetry for Ukraine, 7. The Silk Road Literature, 8. Ancient Egyptians Modern Poets, 9. Mediterranean Waves, 10. Peace and Love Make Society, 11. Rhapsodies, 12. Dandelions: Multiverse of Poets. Additionally, he compiled Pakistani English Poets Prodigy, which was published in the USA. His poetry has been featured in prominent international magazines and websites, and he has penned over 1400 poems, published in more than 300 world anthologies and magazines, translated into several major languages.

Ariel view of Rawalpindi

The Deceit of the Journey

I returned empty handed from fulfillment’s silent sanctuary,

Though adorned with insight, I touched not sacred truth,

With steadfast tread I climbed triumph’s towering illusion,

Mistaking vain success for life’s sovereign culmination.

That which I crowned as victory was inner void,

While perceived defeat revealed veiled divine ascendancy,

Through boundless spans of becoming I wandered estranged,

Mistaking fleeting milestones for eternal resting abodes.

The final anchor lay shrouded in misted obscurity,

Yet I declared myself whole amidst spectral delusion,

Mind forged illusions clasped me in silent bondage,

A fugitive of time, adrift through vanishing instants.

Shelters shifted, destinations dissolved without farewell,

Each threshold led toward another unnamed departure,

Fatigue etched its weight within my aching marrow,

And I sought shade beneath illusion’s transient grace.

Yet the mirage multiplied, the path stretched unyielding,

And life dissolved beneath dusk’s encroaching veil,

The light withdrew, the horizon cloaked in silence,

Far from the verity I once presumed to possess.

Now I yearn to return to origin’s lost flame,

Perhaps the first step bore truth’s hidden dwelling,

That forsaken threshold, shunned in hunger’s pursuit,

May hold the essence eclipsed by wandering desire.

***

The Temple of Solitude

By its own aspirations a tragic solitude,

Torn between pride and humility in sacred vengeance,

Cradles in the lullaby of illusion within prophetic silence,

Binds the myth of eternal return in the mist,

To drench in devotional longing captivated by sorrow,

Dwells in the temple of thought to hush between heartbeats,

Carved from the stone of inner silence the suspense,

Baths in the ink of quiet introspection to sigh,

A secret flame of separation rooted in the soil of,

Triumph of will crowned by the bloom of perseverance,

Crushes the weight of broken dreams with fulfilled desire,

Enthralled by loss in the shadows of imagined pain,

Casts upon the vortex of fate’s austere withdrawal,

To stir the abyss of absence hollowed by the silence,

The corridors of heartache tread in the veil of grief,

With the rhythms of ecstasy to cradle new dawn.

***

Far Away From the Self

Our destined paths have long departed into distance,

Trails now scattered within the mirrors of mist,

Silent and desolate have lapsed these watchful eyes,

As fractured stillness veils the horizon’s reach.

No thought remains, nor courtyard of old, nor kin,

We have become exiles within our native breath,

Those we sought in the ache of each heartbeat,

Their visages now wane in the fog of memory.

Yes, far away we’ve wandered from our very selves,

No vision remains, no image bears clarity,

Only a circling maze of dim reflection,

As though weariness clings to every breath,

And someone seeks shade within this scorching life.

Burned by the cruel majesty of solar wrath,

The valley ends where silence may cradle the weary,

Yet life has wearied in deciphering its own depths,

In quests to comprehend the soul’s own reflection.

Now it seems as if none remains to call our own,

And even our shadow feels estrangement and silence,

A quiet dread arises from within the self,

For we have strayed far from our own essence.

Perhaps, there lies a destination still unknown,

Or life itself is but the name of onward wandering,

Though the pageantry of springtime leads the soul astray,

Some visions yet persist, ordained to summon lamentation.

***

A Vigilant Soul Awaits

A solemn vigil stirs the soul’s deep core,

Veiled fire beneath humanity longs to roar,

An ancient cry breathes through the folds of thought,

Time’s hush prepares the truth, the seers sought.

The soul desires clouds ablaze with peace,

Tranquility draped in celestial, silent release,

Is a sacred phrase to light the mind’s domain!

And whisper grace through reason’s rich refrain.

For centuries I’ve thirsted for one stream,

A draught to heal the wounds of dream,

A pilgrim bearing thought’s illumined flame,

I name the stars, yet shun all fame.

Let peace arise on wisdom’s tempered wing,

Let every soul in silent union sing,

Let truth be refuge for the bruised and torn,

And tyranny die where light is born.

A day shall come when division’s veil shall fall,

One voice shall echo in the hearts of all,

Those drunk on power shall at last descend,

Marked by the time their might cannot defend.

***

In the Veins of Mist

Beyond the veil were dust and mist alone,

A traveler was I, yet journey there was none!

The tale once bound by threads was bore of grief,

Though paths bended beneath celestial turns.

I walked through clocks that melted into breath,

Where roads were stitched from shadows of desire,

Each turn revealed a mirror with no face,

Each milestone sang but vanished into fire.

Ideas rained like feathers made of glass,

Breaking soundlessly on the floor of thought,

I sought the ones who dwelled behind my eyes,

But found them drowning in a glass of haze.

No sorrow wept beneath the laughing moon,

I moved, yet floated in a static sea,

Time wore a cloak of whispering spectral wings,

And space knelt quiet at memory’s rusted gate.

The spring I chased turned into mirrored smoke,

And kissed the void with incandescent flames.

My river slept inside a cave of wind,

No wave disturbs the mirror of my stream.

No voice, no flame, no herald of the dream,

No beacon flares, no shore, no destiny,

No wave stirs forth within my silent sea,

In endless pursuit my compass turned to mist.

In the orbit of seeking lost my compass,

Diverts in the agony of smouldering path,

Each step dissolves into a vow forsaken,

And vanishes beneath eternity’s breathless veil.