I don't know if you have noticed but there has been 3 poets that have a recurring appearance on my blog. Personally, I didn't even notice the pattern myself but when I thought of sharing my perspectives on poets that have impacted my life in some way, I looked at my blog itself and saw the pattern that there were 3 that I kept referring to.
So let us begin:
Nizar Al Qabbani
Nizar is a Syrian poet and diplomat whose writing has very sensual and political vibes but somehow he mixes those things elegantly together. I discovered him through the Iraqi singer Kadem El Saher whose songs, not all but many at that time, were poems by Nizar that he composed to songs. At that time when I was younger, Nizar's name was just a name I came across, it didn't mean anything to me. It wasn't until my dark year in Montreal that I really started to discover Nizar and what his writing really meant to me. I came across poems about identity, war, loss, beauty, and women. I loved his writing mostly because it was very direct. That was unusual for an Arab, especially for that time. I found myself in his writing especially around topics of identity and loss where he describes Arabs as water melon heads, or something like this, and calls for the younger generations to wake up. I also particularly like his honesty about the lack of respect or perhaps lack of emotional depth in relationships between men and women in the Arab world. Maybe those things have changed now. I grew up in Canada where the relationships between men and women were relatively healthy but I struggled to understand my family's perspective because it was radically different than mine. Nizar's writing taught me much about life. I even dedicated my first blog post to a poem written by Nizar.
Khalil Gibran
Khalil's style is a bit different than Nizar's. It feels a bit more dry. Maybe because he is Lebanese and grew up in America. I really like his style though. It's light and easy to read. His writing centres around love, freedom, nature, spirituality, loneliness, and the human soul. I discovered Khalil's work shortly after a huge break up and I was in a phase of having to find myself again since that relationship defined me for so long. His work opened my eyes to how profound poetry can be and how some stranger's words like this poet can make me feel so connected to him. It's as if he understood me. What I was feeling and thinking and going through. I was especially struck by a quote I came across, because during that phase of my life, I got really into quotes lol. It went something like this : "It seems like wherever I go, a poet has been there before me" . It really is true. Poets do seem to have this wisdom and perhaps it is necessary to have this wisdom to be able to write. Khalil's writing has a dreamy mystical feel which goes for all the poets I am into. Perhaps because that is my personal style too. Dreamy and mystical. I visited Beirut in 2017 on a solo journey and took his book, The Prophet, with me. I enjoyed spending my days meandering about the city and taking breaks in cafes and on benches alongside the beach to read it. It enriched the experience.
Rumi
Rumi has this strange vibe somewhere between dreamy and godly. My choice for Rumi is an interesting one because at the start of my journey, you wouldn't have guessed that I was a very spiritual person but that changed with time. My relationship with God has always been special because I have absolutely no clue how to pray according to the religions but I speak directly to God. Only he knows what's inside my heart. So perhaps that's what attracts me to Rumi's poetry. It touches on our direct relationship with God and spirituality, love, existence, and mysticism. Ironically, I came across Rumi's work more closely while living in Dubai which isn't exactly a city you associate with love and poetry. But Dubai was also the first place where I felt love. Love so strong I wanted to commit suicide for. Wow wow wow. Rumi makes repeated appearances on my blog and I will continue to share my favourite work by him.
Honorary Mention: Leonard Cohen
.jpeg)
“I feel at home when I’m in Montréal — in a way that I don’t feel anywhere else. I don’t know what it is, but the feeling gets stronger as I get older.”
Obviously, I discovered Leonard in Montreal. The giant memorial of him on crescent street visible from any elevated point in the city. The quotes of his work plastered across museum walls in the city centre and on playgrounds in the Portuguese quarter. His songs softly playing in romantic bars. You cannot live in Montreal and ignore Leonard Cohen. For me, Leonard Cohen represents freedom, pain, romance, and culture. His words struck me deeply when I felt loneliness in Montreal. That's really the major theme of my experience there. The sense of loneliness I felt. Being far away from home that never felt like home anyway but somehow trying to create a new home in a place that also felt lonely. If that makes sense. His voice is deep and unmistakable and brought me a feeling of comfort when I used to play his songs in my studio apartment in Le Plateau and more than anything, I love that his writing is philosophical. Dance me to the End of Love being his most famous classic. I feel a sense of pride when I think of Leonard because he is Canadian, born and raised. Go Canada!
Poetry might seem like an old fashioned thing nowadays. I am not sure if young people are really in touch with it or with these passed writers. Perhaps now the shiny new AI tools take the front stage but it shouldn't discount what poetry does. Poetry speaks to the soul in a way AI cannot do. It is reading the words of another human being as they spill their guts out on a piece of paper and you read along with them and feel what they feel. That has power.
Nizar helped me recognize things about myself; Gibran accompanied me as I rebuilt myself; Rumi connected me to something beyond myself; and Leonard gave expression to the loneliness, pain, romance, and freedom I experienced.
#Poetry #PoetryLovers #PoetryCommunity #NizarQabbani #KhalilGibran #Rumi #PersianPoetry #ArabicPoetry #LiteraryReflections #WordsThatMatter #SoulfulWriting #LoveAndSpirituality #TheHumanSoul #PowerOfWords #LiteratureLovers #PoetryAndLife #BooksAndThoughts #PersonalReflections #MyFavouritePoets #SuraStories
