LANDAY

 WHAT IS LANDAY : 

It originated with the nomads of Afghanistan , Pakistan and India. But its still considered as an Afghani poetic form .  Landay may have existed from several centuries although it gained its significance among poets and writers recently . Literally , Landay means “short and poisonous snake” . It is a short poetry known for its use of scarcsm and revealing of  harsh truth , successfully sticking up to its meaning .

FORMAT OF LANDAY : 

It consists of twenty-two syllables ; nine syllables in the first line and thirteen in the second , a single couplet and it tends to end by the sound of ‘ma’ or ‘na’ at last . It has no particular rhyme scheme and the sounds of ‘ma’ and ‘na’ are difficult to write in English . It has been a verbal form for very long  , a way to communicate between nomadic groups , and was usually sung by the Pashto women . It covers the themes like love , war , homeland and grief . It can be as short as two lines or as long as several pages .  

EXAMPLE OF LANDAY : 

departures, 

by Robert Lee Brewer

the cities light up beneath our plane

on the left as the sun retreats from us on the right

the moon appears in rivers below

& then disappears like our fragile first encounters

we both flinched at our first touch but then

crashed back together as if that's what held us aloft

i'm not sure why some cities still burn

while others dissolve quietly into the darkness

i'm not sure why we need departures

to remind us of the excitement of arrivals

*****

 (Note: None of poems we present belong to us. We present an organised record and analysis of them. All copyrights are reserved to the original author and we are not using plagiarized work. The originality of writes are verified to the fullest extent we can .)

TIPS FOR WRITING A LANDAY : 

• Poem comprised of self-contained couplets--as few as one couplet will do

• 9 syllables in the first line; 13 syllables in the second line

• Landays tend to reveal harsh truths using wit

• Themes include love, grief, homeland, war, and separation

Note: There is not a specific rhyme pattern for this form, though lines tend to end on the sounds of "na" and "ma" in the original Pashto. However, this is difficult to replicate in English. Keep in mind that landays are often sung.

CHEERS !!

WRITEN BY : SHREYA ( member of TeamPoetReeForest )