Life As A Poet and Journalist
As of 1984, al-Qasim had written twenty-four volumes of nationalist poetry and published six collections of poems. His poems in general are relatively short, some being no more than just two verses. Some of his famous poems include:
- Slit Lips
- Sons of War
- Confession at Midday
- Travel Tickets
- Bats
- Abandoning
- The Story of a City
- Conversation between Ear of Corn and Jerusalem Rose Thorn
- How I became an Article
- Story of the Unknown Man
- End of a Discussion with a Jailer
- The Will of a Man Dying in Exile
- The Boring Orbit
- The Clock on the Wall
Al-Qasim has contributed to the journals of Al-Ittihad, Al-Jadid, Index and others. He claims, that the pan-Arab ideology of Nasserism impressed him during the nationalist post-1948 era. Most of his poetry relates to the change of life before and after the Nakba, the Palestinian and broader Arab struggle to free their lands from foreign influence, Arab nationalism, and various Arab tragedies. In 1968, he published his first collection of poetry, Waiting for the Thunderbird. Al-Qasim wrote about these subjects while they were at the climax of their popularity among the Arab population in the later half of the 20th century. When asked by his Iraqi friend, poet Buland al-Haidari if he had visited Baghdad, he replied by saying he did not have to, since he views any Arab city as equal to his own Arab residence.
Read more about this topic: Samih Al-Qasim
Famous quotes containing the words life, poet and/or journalist:
“Life has no other discipline to impose, if we would but realize it, than to accept life unquestioningly. Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. What seems nasty, painful, evil, can become a source of beauty, joy and strength, if faced with an open mind. Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such.”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)
“The poet uses the results of science and philosophy, and generalizes their widest deductions.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“If, for instance, they have heard something from the postman, they attribute it to “a semi-official statement”; if they have fallen into conversation with a stranger at a bar, they can conscientiously describe him as “a source that has hitherto proved unimpeachable.” It is only when the journalist is reporting a whim of his own, and one to which he attaches minor importance, that he defines it as the opinion of “well-informed circles.””
—Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966)