as i was reading this i thought of Marwa Helal's "poem for brad who wants me to write about the pyramids," which is written as a prose poem and features a small blank square in the middle of the text -- a kind of formal/spatial echo of her other poems "the middle east is missing" and "the middle east experts are missing." i like to think of that blank space as a literal rendering of the symbolic "third space," which you so beautifully write about in these lectures. i'm SO enjoying these! thank you so much for sharing
I love the idea of “breaking the form” of the ghazal, I think al-Ghazali would approve as well!
Regarding this:
“…rather than getting to do the work of the imagination and the senses that other writers get to make without being questioned”
I don’t be in those whitecentric circles so I just want to add that ‘the work of the imagination’ does indeed involve writing about the poet’s people and/or people of the same race, imagining even what people of the same race are feeling, living, thinking etc IS imaginative work still. Salaam!
as i was reading this i thought of Marwa Helal's "poem for brad who wants me to write about the pyramids," which is written as a prose poem and features a small blank square in the middle of the text -- a kind of formal/spatial echo of her other poems "the middle east is missing" and "the middle east experts are missing." i like to think of that blank space as a literal rendering of the symbolic "third space," which you so beautifully write about in these lectures. i'm SO enjoying these! thank you so much for sharing
omg yes i love your reading of those three poems as a sort of puzzle set!!!
Salaam Safia, thanks for this.
I love the idea of “breaking the form” of the ghazal, I think al-Ghazali would approve as well!
Regarding this:
“…rather than getting to do the work of the imagination and the senses that other writers get to make without being questioned”
I don’t be in those whitecentric circles so I just want to add that ‘the work of the imagination’ does indeed involve writing about the poet’s people and/or people of the same race, imagining even what people of the same race are feeling, living, thinking etc IS imaginative work still. Salaam!
thank you for this insight!!