Shauq’s pen must be more like a lethal dagger. His words though small in their number, loom large in the eye. They pierce the heart so fiercely when they are read. I too must shamelessly confess was a victim of their ferocity like some loving violence speaking out from the pages with a hauntingly humble and beautiful voice. I have had long conversations with Afzal Shauq myself and found him to be sensitive and charming but nothing prepared me for how so very well I would get to know him just from reading his latest book of poems. I feel I know him far better now from that more so than any conversation we two could ever have had on any given day of the week and for whatever length of the duration. I learned this fact maybe twenty poems into his book. Dear readers ,its as if you can almost taste his disbelief and hope so intermingled as he looks upon his world and ponders the why of it all and with he being not one to squander his words each small meal he feeds the eyes is a banquet to the mind. Upon reading his poems I have also learned there is romance even in disappointment. Whether reflecting on poverty, war, injustice of one’s circumstances or the stark inconceivableness of inhumanity Afzal Shauq lends his words and offers up his own poet’s heart to the reader to be accepted or dismissed in the matter… Melissa Lundeen’
(Bridging The Gaps/Nazish Zafar/P: 44)
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‘The themes of the Afzal Shauq’s poetry are universal brotherhood, fraternity, love, humanity and intense desire to improve the pitiable condition of the people suffering from poverty, injustice and discrimination. The explorer in Afzal Shauq has led him to various countries of the world and this has also endowed his creative spirit with rich