Meniscus
Notes for the Painfully Alone
by Ayon Shahed

---

Meniscus is a debut poetry collection that inhabits the ambiguous space between closeness and distance—where intimacy nearly happens, where connection flickers, where solitude settles in. Moving through urban nights and quiet mornings, these poems trace the afterimages of love: bars and bedrooms, streetlights and smoke, fleeting encounters and long silences. Again and again, the speaker reaches toward others, toward memory, toward versions of the self shaped by longing—only to discover what remains after. Dark and melancholic yet never fully resigned, Meniscus is animated by a stubborn tenderness: the belief that warmth can survive miscommunication, that naming the ache is its own form of reaching, and that small moments—observed closely—still carry beauty. Intimate, atmospheric, and emotionally exacting, this collection offers a language for modern longing and the quiet courage of feeling it fully.

---

Ayon Shahed is a poet based in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. Born in Bangladesh, he has called several cities across Canada home—experiences that shape the restless, observant voice of his work. MENISCUS is his debut collection, marked by an enduring attention to memory and emotional intimacy.

---

Contributors

Author

Ayon Shahed