It is as hurting to depart from thee,
As it is to find a kid begin' in street.
Thou are to me than a hundred me
Yet less than the struggle for liberty.
...
Heavens rain the crimson tears.
Ebon bat loses its way back home.
Moments freeze and nights lengthen.
A soul trembles down in fear.
...
Thorns mourn'd the depart'd roses,
And the roots cried their eyes out.
The soil flooded in tears,
And the gardeners slept dead.
...
The winged Cupid held it high in the heavens,
Aromatic pedals of black roses in its odour.
Mesmerizing, bewitching and hypnotizing.
A spellbound soul on the Plutonian shore.
...
In the castle's shadow, dim and deep,
Where silent hours in darkness creep,
A prince once bright, now cold and numb,
No sorrow stirs, no joy shall come.
...
I bowed to thee, O thou lady cold,
In shadows deep, my heart untold—
With trembling hands, I clasped thy name,
A mortal lost in love's sweet flame.
...
Mason Carter (pen name of Mushahid Syed) is a poet, fiction writer, translator, and professor at Shah Abdul Latif University, Ghotki Campus, where he has taught since 2018. His work explores themes of social justice, autonomy, and community, blending lyricism with philosophy and political imagination. A lifelong bookworm, he began writing poetry and fiction in 2010 and draws inspiration from Gothic and radical voices such as Poe, Blake, Gibran, and Bookchin. His works can be explored at https: //www.masoncarterauthor.com)
A Hymn To Thee
It is as hurting to depart from thee,
As it is to find a kid begin' in street.
Thou are to me than a hundred me
Yet less than the struggle for liberty.
Thy eyes let this poor heart shine,
As a comet rocketin' down the sky,
With the light of hope and love divine.
A blazin' flame that shall never die.
With a flame that equally drives,
When on each corner of this town,
A wage slave is seen burned alive.
We dare not speak against the crown.
Stars can't count what thou mean,
Dear Saint, to this heart- a sinner,
That for long in thy devotion lean
And to thee belong this soul sinner.
- Mason Carter
But having no relation at all I believe is also a relationship in itself, a never-ending, never breaking, the relationship of nothingness. - Mason Carter
Material reality is the ground of human understanding. Both truth and lie are outcomes of verification. Take the statement "Someone committed corruption." If this claim is verified against actual events and evidence, and it aligns with material reality, it becomes true. If verification shows it contradicts material events, it becomes a lie. In both cases, the process is the same: verification against reality. — from 'Critical Thinking Unchained: From Formal Logic to Dialectics of Emancipation'