Samih Al-Qasim - Life As A Poet and Journalist

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.