The RetroLounge Daily Poem Thread (Sun 4/23/06)

[RetroLounge]

When I Love

When I love
I feel that I am the king of time
I possess the earth and everything on it
and ride into the sun upon my horse.

When I love
I become liquid light
invisible to the eye
and the poems in my notebooks
become fields of mimosa and poppy.

When I love
the water gushes from my fingers
grass grows on my tongue
when I love
I become time outside all time.

When I love a woman
all the trees
run barefoot toward me...

Nizar Qabbani

********************



Nizar Qabbani was revered by generations of Arabs for his sensual and romantic verse. His work was featured not only in his two dozen volumes of poetry and in regular contributions to the Arabic-language newspaper Al Hayat, but in lyrics sung by Lebanese and Syrian vocalists who helped popularize his work.

Through a lifetime of writing, Qabbani made women his main theme and inspiration. He earned a reputation for daring with the publication in 1954 of his first volume of verse, "Childhood of a Breast," whose erotic and romantic themes broke from the conservative traditions of Arab literature. The suicide of his sister, who was unwilling to marry a man she did not love, had a profound effect on Qabbani. Thereafter, he expressed resentment of male chauvinism and often wrote from a woman's viewpoint and advocated social freedoms for women.

He had lived in London since 1967 but the Syrian capital remained a powerful presence in his poems, most notably in "The Jasmine Scent of Damascus."
After the Arab defeat in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, he founded the Nizar Qabbani publishing house in London, and his became a powerful and eloquent voice of lament for Arab causes.

Qabbani was a committed Arab nationalist and in recent years his poetry and other writings, including essays and journalism, had become more political. His writing also often fused themes of romantic and political despair.
Qabbani's later poems included a strong strain of anti-authoritarianism. One couplet in particular -- "O Sultan, my master, if my clothes are ripped and torn it is because your dogs with claws are allowed to tear me" -- is sometimes quoted by Arabs as a kind of wry shorthand for their frustration with life under dictatorship.

His second wife, Balqis al-Rawi, an Iraqi teacher whom he had met at a poetry recital in Baghdad, was killed in a bomb attack by pro-Iranian guerrillas in Beirut, where she was working for the cultural section of the Iraqi Ministry.

Nizar Qabbani died in London of a heart attack at the age of 75 ..

********************

RL

If you have a request for a certain Poet, post their name in the thread and I will find a poem by them and post it...

if you want to see some of my poetry, see the blog at:
http://www.myspace.com/retropaul

[yvr girl]

1. That's beautiful

See, love doesn't always 'suck'.

[RetroLounge]

4. No it doesn't

When I love a woman
all the trees
run barefoot toward me...

:hug:

RL

[Callalily]

2. Ah, what a lovely poem RL

when I love
I become time outside all time. *swoon*

Yes being in love and loved is the most fantastic feeling in the world.

[GOPisEvil]

3. !!

:bounce::bounce::bounce::loveya::loveya::loveya::bounce::bounce::bounce:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. My dear RetroLounge........

This is so powerful, and sexy! Is that what it's like to be a romantic, sexual man?

I need to know, please!

Thank you, especially for this poem today........

:loveya: :hug:

[miss_american_pie]

6. "liquid light"

:shiver:

[RetroLounge]

7. Yes, it is quite a nice image

I accidentally discovered this poet today while searching for someone else.

Very glad I did...

:hi:

RL

[SeattleGirl]

8. Beautiful choice, RL

:hug:

[djeseru]

9. Oh, this one is just astounding.

"and the poems in my notebooks
become fields of mimosa and poppy."

Thanks RL. What a beautiful gift today. :)

[RevCheesehead]

10. Sorry, buddy....

but if grass grows on your tongue, I ain't french-kissing you. ;)

:loveya: