VIDEO POETRY | Ayesha Raees

A Manual

(or memoir)

For Learning

(or knowing)

About a Tentative

(or fleeting)

Ticking thought Machine

(or being)

F A L L I N G O U T
POEM BY C H R I S T I N A I M

POEM WRITTEN BY CHRISTINA IM.

Falling Out. For K. For Q.

A dedication to friendship and loss.

For Visible Poetry Project

2020

Video created by: Ayesha Raees

Sound:Kai Engel and Daniel Simon
35mm b&w photography: Ayesha Raees

T I M E R E S T S, E X H A U S T E D, I N M E M O R Y

POEM BY A Y E S H A R A E E S

VIDEO POEM WRITTEN BY AYESHA RAEES

TIME RESTS, EXHAUSTED, IN MEMORY

Nostalgia has time to overwhelm:
I am standing in grass, in rooms,
in realization of sandstorms waging
on in little hourglasses swaying
on the necks of my other selves.
Like this, Time rests, exhausted, in Memory:
Pollen bombs, black ice, a blotted nose,
eyes about to overflow, blemishes,
allergies, broken bones, rooms
where I once lived
become somebody else’s homes.
Time says You Know It Happens.
Time says Keep Moving On.
Yet, everything is fluttering like tiny wishes
from dandelions, and these shutters
are open for my wistful eyes
only for the known.

Video created by: Ayesha Raees
Music: Sequented Sol U by Myriadar
35mm b&w photography: Ayesha Raees

R U B A I Y A T O F O M A R K H A Y Y A M

POEM BY O M A R K H A Y Y A M

POEM WRITTEN BY OMAR KHAYYAM

RUBAIYAT 20

Ah, my Beloved, fill the Cup that clears

TO-DAY of past Regrets and future Fears -

To-morrow ? - Why, To-morrow I may be

Myself with Yesterday's Sev'n Thousand Years.

RUBAIYAT 21

Lo! some we loved, the loveliest and best

That Time and Fate of all their Vintage prest,

Have drunk their Cup a Round or two before,

And one by one crept silently to Rest.

RUBAIYAT 22

And we, that now make merry in the Room

They left, and Summer dresses in new Bloom,

Ourselves rnust we beneath the Couch of Earth

Descend, ourselves to make a Couch - for whom?

RUBAIYAT 23

Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,

Before we too into the Dust descend;

Dust into Dust, and under Dust, to lie,

Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and - sans End !

Video created by: Ayesha Raees, Sound Design: Steve O' Connell, Voice Over: Sally Sparks,, Music by: Antimatter twin by Tounela

A N O I S E L E S S P A T I E N T S P I D E R

POEM BY W A L T W H I T M A N

VIDEO POEM BASED ON WALT WHITMAN'S

NOISELESS PATIENT SPIDER

A noiseless patient spider,
I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated,
Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,
It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.

And you O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,
Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.

Video created by: Ayesha Raees
Music: T ommy Hilfiger by Sarah Rasines
Lights: Dory Nguyen

Actor: An Nguyen