‘One cannot crossexamine the dead’

The author looks at the life of the Kashmiri-american poet, who was a prominent voice against injustice

I must have been around 15 when I first read Shahid. I instantly fell in love with his poetry. I remember reading poems like A Rehearsal of Loss and The Dacca Gauzes and before I knew it, Shahid had taken a hold of me. There was something ineffable about his language, something indescribable. Although I started recognising the political content in his poetry only in my late teens, it shaped my understanding of the world in so many ways. I think I responded to his poetry, particularly to The Country Without a Post Office, so viscerally not just because of the politics but the aesthetic beauty and what his language evoked.