Lebanese poet and literary critic Abdo Wazen has recently released his new poetry collection, titled “No Face in the Mirror” (by Al-Mutawassit Publications, Italy). The new book features a collection of prose poems that celebrate the humaneness of special moments captured by the poet with the wisdom of a meditator, the passion of an adventurer and the expertise of someone who has survived wars, losses, love and death.
Between the first poem in the new collection, ‘Theft’, which presents witty poetic advice for budding writers, and the final poem ‘A Funeral Mass for Ounsi Al Haj’, there are many poems that capture and examine the minute details of everyday life that often escape us. Moreover, the various poems shed light on the inner self and our constant attempts to escape it; “I only escape from myself, from the unknown that envelops it”, the poet admits. Nevertheless, the poet insists on writing and producing more poetry to the point of annihilation, as if this is an actual rebirth and a new face that does not require a mirror to reflect its features.
As we move on to ‘The Forgotten’, another poem in the book, the poet writes: “I love forgotten poets/ whose doors are knocked on by none/ who fell early on/ in the abyss of their solitude/ who closed their notebooks/ so that none will read them/ the poets who secretly lived their days/ so that not even a stone or a tree can hear the sound of their footsteps”. The poet of ‘The Garden of Senses’ is not short of literary tricks or philosophical musings that conjure up nature and things. His texts reflect visions of different places, times and moods. The collection also includes several poems on the theme of love, such as ‘A Woman in the Middle of a Storm’.
In the final poem of Wazen’s collection, ‘‘A Funeral Mass for Ounsi Al Haj’, we read: “ The night spreads widely before you, so that you may stay up until dawn/ and converse in the dark with delicate creatures/ with angels and saints”. ‘No Face in the Mirror’, the latest poetry collection by poet Abdo Wazen, includes 112 medium-cut pages and is issued as part of the “Patents” book series published by Dar Al Mutawassit, which celebrates a number of literary genres such as poetry, short story and fiction.
“Patents” book series published by Dar Al Mutawassit, which celebrates a number of literary genres such as poetry, short story and fiction.
