The urban consciousness is evident in Kaiser Haq’s poetry. Kaiser Haq, who's an urban poet, used his poems to show how aware he was of the world around him. The poet, on the other hand, made a place where he wanted to go. He couldn't figure out how the capital changed from when he was young to now, so he wanted to go to a place where no one was ruled by anyone else. Recently a research article Urban Consciousness in Kaiser Haq’s poetry has been published in the Journal of Postcolonial Writing and World Literatures. The research article has been written by Maria Zaman.
The research piece also examines Kaiser Haq's poetry in terms of urban awareness, and it inquires as to how this consciousness influenced his creative imagination. In the poem "Santahar," there is a picture of escaping from the city and moving to Santahar, which the poet considers to be a quiet place. The poet's wish to return to Santahar and die peacefully was expressed in the poem "Santahar," which began with the words “Now I know what Santahar means: it’s any place you want to go back to so you can die in peace” (Haq,17) And thus was the singularity of Haq's urban consciousness: he was content with his urban existence yet wished to return to a small, peripheral village in order to die peacefully in his sleep.
Author Maria Zaman also adds that as an urban poet, Haq provided accurate accounts of hectic city life, yet he also appeared to grasp the beauty that exists beyond the everyday. Even though the poet was born and raised in the capital, he preferred to retire in a little village near a railway junction. Haq celebrates his life in the world's busiest metropolis, but he wishes to die in tranquility in Santahar. And this was the essence of urban consciousness. Being a city resident for the majority of one's life but eventually choosing a serene location to spend the final days of one's life gave consciousness to urban living.
As a Literature student, Zaman found it immensely interesting how authors and poets depict city life. However, Zaman's issue was exacerbated by the fact that the majority of them depicted city life as corrupting or dangerous for its inhabitants. And this is why Zaman chose to write this article: Haq did not simply paint the city unfavorably; he also depicted it as a wonderful location.
Journal of Postcolonial Writing and World Literatures is a part of Royallite Global and focuses on the formation of empire, the impact of colonization on postcolonial history, economy, science, and culture, the cultural productions of colonized societies, feminism and postcolonialism, marginalized people's agency, and the state of the postcolonialism in contemporary economic and cultural contexts, capitalism and the market, environmental concerns, and the relationship between aestheticism and aesthetics. The journal's broad objectives and scope enable academics to investigate related subject areas.
Article Source- Zaman, M. “Urban Consciousness in Kaiser Haq’s Poetry”. Journal of Postcolonial Writing and World Literatures, vol. 2, no. 2, Apr. 2021, pp. 7-13, https://royalliteglobal.com/world-literatures/article/view/576.