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| Jenny Lewis in Safi, holding her Carcanet collections Fathom (2007) and Taking Mesopotamia (2014) |
JENNY LEWIS AT THE AL KALIMA INTERNATIONAL FORUM OF POETRY
SAFI, MOROCCO, MARCH 18-27 2015
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| Safi town square |
2015 Forum Title: Poetry and Resistance
I have been invited to Morocco with other poets from 15 countries to attend a conference and take our poetry to five different cities. This is a diary of our trip. I am travelling with the Iraqi poet, Adnan al-Sayegh with whom I have been translating and publishing poetry including 11 poems translated into Arabic in my collection about the First World War and the 2003-2011 US/ UK war in Iraq – Taking Mesopotamia - published by Carcanet Press, 2014.
The festival is organised by the Al Kalima Foundation. Al Kalima (meaning ‘the word’) is a new foundation for culture and the arts in Safi, Morocco, and this is its third poetry conference and festival with the theme of poetry, war and resistance.
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| Reading at Lycee Khaouarizmi |
Tuesday 17 March:
We arrived in cold and rainy Marrakech to be met by Aymen Kachouchi (Communications Director) and a welcome party of poets, novelists and philosophers from the University of Rabat – including the Professor of Philosophy. Over a soothing cup of vervaine-infused milk at the local literary cafe (Marrakech’s answer to the Poetry Library) we talked in a mixture of Arabic, French and English about the greatest novelists in the English language for which title Hardy, Dickens, Eliot, Austen, the Brontes, Defoe, Faulkner, Steinbeck, Woolf, Bellow, Updike and many more were contenders before we finally settled (I think, it was very late by then…) on James Joyce.
The drive from Marrakech to Safi, where the conference is being held, is 180 kilometres – we arrived at the Hotel Assif around 11pm – pretty exhausted but excited to be in Morocco surrounded by poets.
Wednesday 18 March:
A free morning to go to the sea. Adnan is teaching me about the metres of different types of classical and modern Arabic poetry. We sat outside the hotel drinking sweet mint tea with Abdelhaq Mifrani and Jamila Abitar, (founders and organisers of the festival), Mohamed Mokhareq, (Finance Director) and Mohamed Zahiri, a renowned Moroccan poetry critic, who is the festival’s guest of honour this year.
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| Abdelhaq Mifrani, Mohamed Zahiri, Mohamed Mokhareq, Jamila Abitar & Adnan al-Sayegh, |
Thursday 19 March:
An important element of the programme is to encourage a love of reading and creative expression in school children and college students so today, Adnan and I, along with Swedish poets Bob Hansen and Bjorn Ursu, visited Lycée Khaouarizmi to read to the students.
Our readings were accompanied by an oud player which gave a lovely sense of rhythm and pace to our words. I read ‘Father’, ‘Non-Military Statements’ and Gilgamesh’s Lament for Enkidu’ from Taking Mesopotamia.
Some of the students also read poems and there will be prizes awarded to the best at the end of the festival. We were struck by how deeply engaged the students (18 – 19 year olds) are with poetry. This seems to be the case generally in Morocco but at this school, Lycée Khaouarizmi, it has been greatly encouraged by the English teacher, Abdelmajid Aarafa. After the readings – mint tea, pastries and many photos and selfies with the students…
This evening we went to the arts centre for an evening of presentations and readings in Arabic and French including from the wonderful Anni Sumari from Finland (my new best friend). A taste of her poetry, translated into English by David McDuff -
‘Trash, straw, spring ice.
The fields creak on their hinges
and fold open like a cargo hatch, for a moment
I can see straight into hell. There is nothing
down there. Just as I thought. Except bodies,
clean and smooth as porcelain…
‘If now
You raise the hatch, lie down on the earth
and let the field slam shut on you,
you will never be able to come back…’
(from Untitled 1)
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| Students at Lycee Khaouarizmi |
Friday 20 March:
About to go to the university for the round table discussion “Is poetry a revolutionary act?’ I will let you know the answer…
…to be continued...
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