DOHA - Poetry broke cultural barriers and flew quiet at the Diplomatic Club last evening.
Qatar's four celebrity poets and the US poet laureate Robert Pinsky enlightened Doha's poetry lovers with their favourite poems.
The poetry reading session, organised by Georgetown University to mark the ongoing American Arts Festival, offered a rare experience to the crowd gathered at the Roshana Hall.
Through his intellectually interesting and technically first-rate poems, Pinsky exhilarated the audience.
"Poetry is not a difficult thing. It is not a test. It's like listening to music. Don't' worry if you cannot understand a word or an imagery or even if a single line", Pinsky said before reading out his favourite pieces.
"Language is not invented by me. It came from other people", said Pinsky who is known for his use of discursive poetic forms.
The poems read out by him conveyed a mixture of anguish, excitement, love, lust and passions. Narrating the agony and ecstasy of a poet, he said:" The passion of a writer is as deep as one touching others' body."
Pinsky, who started off with a 14th century Japanese poet, concluded with reading his favioruite Canto from his translation of Dante's Inferno. The Want Bone', `Other Hand' and `The Shirt' were some of the pieces he read out to the enlightened crowd.
Ahmed Abdul Malik, Zakia Ali Malallah, Hessa Al Awadi and Ali Mirza were the Qatari poets who were at the function to familiarize the Qatari stream of poetry.
Appreciating Georgetown University's gesture, Abdul Malik said: This is a time when the world is being devastated by war and hate campaigns. Poetry can do a lot to bridge the gap between people", he said.
Abdul Malik spoke on three different periods in the history of Qatari poetry. He also remembered Qatar's poetic genius Mohammed Al Ali who died at the age of 32.
Zakia Ali Malallah, Hessa Al Awadi and Ali Mirza read out their favourite pieces.
© The Peninsula 2007
