This week's Tuesday Poem
is 'Abdullah,
Servant of God' by Wade Bishop, brought to us by Helen
Lowe.
Helen notes that the poem
addresses the 'issues of the day' and speaks about poetry having at its core a
sense of 'heart', of strength of voice, of honesty in the context of real lives
against the backdrop of international politics and happenings. It is a timely
poem to share.
Helen writes:
When I first
heard Wade Bishop read Abdullah, The Servant of God at the
Canterbury Poets' Collective several weeks ago, I was struck by the extent to
which the poem not only addressed a real and pressing international issue, but
did so out of direct experience. The authenticity of that experience speaks
from every line of the poem ...
The poem opens:
Abdullah, The Servant of
God
He was not a handsome man
not even in possession of a
face that was easy to look into
it was journey twisted and
wrinkled like a baby at birth
........................only his never smoothed
the folds filled with hopes
and wonders ...
Wade Bishop discusses how this
poem was inspired by his travels in Syria and the 'absolute truth' of his bus
ride from Aleppo to Palmyra. In this poem the poet gives 'some
small voice to the story that is rarely told of the real people who live there'.
No comments:
Post a Comment