Five Arab poets recited some of their works to an enthusiastic audience in Amman on Saturday on the fourth day of the Jerash Festival for Arts and Culture.
The five poets were among more than forty others who gathered for a series of cultural events as part of the annual festival.
The poets, Iraqi Shawqi Abdel Amir and Kathem Jihad, Egypt’s Azza Badr and Jordan’s Ibrahim El-Khatib and Jaafar Aqili delighted the audience, and succeeded in gaining interaction while reciting poems with themes that ranged from national worries and concerns to love, bitterness and joys of daily life.
The Iraqi poet Abdel Amir, who came to Amman from a self-imposed exile in Paris, was haunted by the pain and agony of having to live away from a homeland whose people suffer from stifling sanctions. He read out a poem to his audience that portrayed southern Iraq as a woman, in an enchanting lyrical work that demonstrated his longing for his country.
Other poets chose works with themes reflecting the flashy moments of life and their significance.
The young Jordanian poet Jaafar Aqili managed to take his place at the podium among the well-known poets and read out a poem reflecting on his homeland.
While Khatib amused the audience with a poem full of satirical connotations entitled ‘the curse of the wolf’ drawing applause from the audience.
Egyptian Azza Badr recited a poem at the gathering reminiscing her early years and first infatuation.
In an interview with Albawaba.com, Badr said “there is an intimate relationship between the life of the poet and his creativity, between what he writes and his life experience. For the poetic spirit that breathes life in the body is but the life of the poet, his mornings and his nights.” —Albawaba.com
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
