Renown Saudi poet Ali Al Hazmi wins the First Prize at “Città di Arona” Poetry Contest with the poem “Laila”.
The poem “LAILA” is a work that deeply touches the soul through delicately woven prose filled with evocative imagery and a narrative steeped in nostalgia. The author masterfully captures the essence of absence and emotional exile, immersing the reader in a world of desert and loss. The skillful use of metaphors and symbolism transforms the barren landscape into a theater of universal human emotions.
The image of Laila, a name steeped in history and mystery, stands as the focal point of the poem, symbolizing the essence of love and loss. The author’s words paint a vivid picture of the poignant search for something lost, while the verses reveal an intense struggle to understand the meaning of existence and the weight of scars left by the wars of time.
The use of poetic language and vivid imagery creates an intensely emotional atmosphere and a deep connection with the reader. The poem offers a meditation on memory and abandonment, inviting the reader to reflect on the unbreakable bond between the past and present, absence and presence.
In conclusion, “LAILA” is a work deserving recognition for its ability to capture the essence of the deepest human emotions through the beauty of words. It is a testament to the power of poetry to touch the human soul and invite the reader to explore the recesses of their own emotional experience.
Critical Comment by DANA NERI
Laila
Laila is looking for a record for her past life,
At the outskirts of time,
While I am looking for the straying morning of a dream
To take me to my far-off palms.
She struggled so long in quest for a string
To accompany her flute while soaring towards the song.
I got tired of my feet walking endlessly
Towards the profound void of the unknown.
After all, we could not find the dawn of our vague morning.
Our exile, allied with delusion, has alienated our souls, altogether.
Laila dwells on the rug of night cursing her fortune.
Laila counts the planets of my longing to embrace her lost past.
Her countless memories
Hinder her from staying in my fields,
Close to the sheaves of my heart.
I also have enough reasons pushing me to follow her flock at sunset.
Laila recalls her voice, lost in the deserts of silence,
To return from the exile of its fires; from its clay.
Laila used to travel in the springtime,
Putting wings of words In the everlasting echoes,
That carried her wretched shadow far beyond.
But, she possesses no deep desire
To hold the tree of hope, When absence flows down.
Laila stares at the dream broken in my eyes, When she visits me,
As I stare at “Good Evening” when she pronounces it.
A faint cord of her shy letters
Stirs the horses of desire I have buried inwardly for so long.
And tempts me to jump over the fences I built
With my hands In the fretful seasons.
We never admitted what our visions have committed
At the verge of sands, last time. She did nor rebuke me
When I mistakenly pronounced my name naked from its old longing.
But I was wrong to enter from the backward gates of echoes
To graze the goats of dream
On plains overlooking the gardens of her sleep.
Time has passed away;
No longer, we can bridge the breach between two chasms.
No longer, we can stand at our distant outskirts.
We were about to find, in the seas of our drowning eyes,
A shawl of stars to inspire our souls, and fill them with new pulses
To praise both the morning and the memories;
But we did not have a lifebuoy to save us from oblivion
And enable us to rise from the abyss of fortune.
Why don’t you believe, when you stare at the mirror,
That you are dead after she is gone?
Laila, whom you loved, is besieged by desolation.
The wandering wilderness has squandered her shadow away.
No more, she would be a star in your night;
No more, too, you would be her moon
Source: Imegespoetry