Thirty new senses: selections from Saudi free verse poetry, by: group of authors

These selections were distinguished by their artistic features, their various themes, as well as their expression of the questions of each era under political, social, and cultural conditions and changes. But as Mohamed Khadr says, the poem remained the one that chose to express the everyday, the lived experience, the personal, the individual, the unusual, the discordant, the creative chaos, and the questions of new life, distancing itself from major issues, uniting opposites, and breaking away from the aesthetics of harmony and the authority of the central poetic hierarchy. It moved from poetic form to stance and mood, and that rebellious writing that refuses to settle within its horizon or any fixed form. It is written with narrative tools, short lines, fragments, long texts, and others, and is also written in a useful and intersecting manner with other arts. We read an experience that merges with visual art, cinema, philosophy, and photography—writing that continuously experiments with new aesthetic proposals each time. These selections gathered different poetic experiences of 36 Saudi poets and poetesses from more than one generation. The selected poems totaled 70, by poets such as Abdullah Al-Safar, Ahmed Al-Mulla, Ziyad Al-Salem, Mohamed Al-Damini, Mohamed Al-Haraz, Sharif Baqna, Abdul Rahman Al-Shihri, Abdullah Thabet, Abdulwahab Al-Arid, Gassan Al-Khuneizi, Ahmed Al-Sahih, Ahmed Al-Wasil, and others. Among the poetesses are Fawzia Abu Khaled, Wafa Al-Rajih, Samar Al-Sheikh, Iman Al-Tunji, Buthaina Al-Yatim, Aisha Ibrahim, and others. These selections ranged between a single poem and three poems per poet or poetess, arranged alphabetically by name. As Mohamed Khadr said in his introduction to these selections, they are not, of course, comprehensive of all poetic experiences, but they are a key to reading and discovery. What I see as lacking is that they did not provide the reader with a brief overview of the poets’ beginnings with free verse poetry, the collections published by each, or their birth dates, which could significantly distinguish these experiences. This would help readers who do not follow the spread of this poetry or its writers to better understand the movement of this poetry and its achievements. Perhaps what is praiseworthy about these selections is that they chose beautiful and expressive poems that reflect a high literary taste and a deep familiarity with this poetic experience and its writers. Additionally, they feature prominent poets and poetesses in this art form, confirming that this type of writing has become readable today, written, and competitive—if not surpassing—traditional vertical poetry and Tafa'il poetry. Number of pages: 195