The Poetteer

Hello poets, I've noticed people reading poems from male 'she' poets. It’s frustrating. Its tiring. Men plagiarizing women’s work. Men mistranslating other poets' work. Men writing about women’s trauma. They should not be writing about women's experiences. Men should not be writing about female trauma or beautifying mental illness. They can’t tell women how they should feel and deal with their mental illnesses and trauma. You can write dark pieces and about mental illnesses without "romanticizing" it and being harmful. Leave females to write about their own traumas and their own stories. Have you ever read a poem about their personal human experience? Do you notice who they refer to in their poems? If they never talk about their own experiences and always share someone’s else narrative it can be problematic. We shouldn’t be writing about a human perspective we haven’t experienced. We should control our own narrative and pass the mic to the other necessary ...

Hello Poetteers, On one side of the poetry world we are encouraging of those who are willing to be vulnerable in sharing their stories. On the other side the poetry world is a mess. The poetry world needs a change. 1. Poets are mistranslating other poets. One example is Barks vs. Rumi. Barks didn't know the language or religion; therefore, he took out the religion. He changed it to be sexual and to fit his westernized spirituality. I break it down in my posts:  Rumi  and  Arab History . Make the time to learn and research your topic. Don't invalidate one's beliefs to fit yours. 2. Poets are plagiarizing others. Time and time again it resurfaces that Rupi Kaur plagiarized Nayyirah Waheed's poems and its style. Rupi has called Nayyirah one of her inspirations. In summary, Waheed has reached out several times to Kaur about the similarities and Kaur denied it. Reading a poem or book that inspires you can affect your subconscious. When it comes to working on you...

Hello Poetteers, I am the servant of the Quran as long as I have life. I am the dust on the path of Muhammad, the Chosen one. If anyone quotes anything except  this from my sayings, I am quit of him and outraged by these words. - Rumi In a previous post I mentioned the erasure of Islam in Rumi's poetry. One interpreter was Coleman Barks. Barks took out Islam and replaced it with something sexual. He oversimplified it and pleased romantic expectations. It was done to satisfy his own belief of spirituality. His interpretation was meant for a quick spiritual fix and to modernize it for the West. He rewrote Rumi's work without knowledge of Islam and the language. This also happened to other classical Persian poets like Hafez and Omar Khayyam with Edward Fitzgerald. Here are a couple book recommendations:  Rumi: The Masnavi , a translation by Jawid Mojaddedi Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayyam by Ahmed Saidi Sources: Reading Rumi - Zirrar  |...

Hello Poetteers, I always wondered about the role poetry played in Arab history. History Poetry held an important role in pre-Islamic society where the poet either praised a tribe or criticized other tribes. Mock battles in poetry where they would have one poet of one tribe get up and oppose a poet of another tribe in place of real wars. In a market town not far from Mecca, they would host a regular poetry festival where poets from all over Arabia would come to compete and recite their poems in front of judges. These judges were either a poet themselves or critics. "Each year the festival’s winning poem would be transcribed in golden letters and hung on the door of Ka’bah in Mecca for the whole year." Politics Through poetry, you can learn about the tribal history. Arab poetry shows us that art and politics are connected. "The tribes relied on poets to recount news and offer political commentary. They kept a record of triumphs, defeats, marriages, and deaths. The poem i...