On the occasion of the World Poetry Day, on March 21 of each year, and within the events of “Doha, Capital of Culture in the Islamic World 2021”, the Qatari Forum for Authors, in cooperation with Qatar Poetry Center “Diwan Al Arab”, organized “Writers of Eloquent Poetry” Forum entitled “The Arabic Poetry Collections between Modernity and Originality”.
Witnessing the participation of a number of poets, critics and researchers from inside and outside the State of Qatar, the forum, which was broadcasted on the Internet, discussed two main topics. Firstly, the participants focused on the reality of writing eloquent poetry. Secondly, they shed light on the most important topics that poets focus on and the aspects of modernity and originality in these topics.
Maryam Yassin Al Hammadi, Director General of the Qatari Forum for Authors, talked about the role of poetry in promoting common humanity as the cornerstone of preserving identity and oral cultural traditions throughout ages. She highlighted also the superior ability of poetry to communicate more deeply to diverse cultures. Moreover, Al Hammadi noted that UNESCO celebrates World Poetry Day annually, with the aim of supporting linguistic diversity through poetic expression, and to allow languages threatened with disappearing to be heard in their local communities. In addition to that, UNESCO seeks not only to support poetry but also to return to oral traditions for poetry evenings. UNESCO also aims at promoting poetry teaching, and reviving dialogue among poetry and other arts such as theater, music, painting, and others by celebrating World Poetry Day.
She added that twenty years ago the world has witnessed a real movement in favor of poetry.
Indeed, poetic activities are increasing in various countries, and poets are increasing in number, which reflects a social need that pushes us to return to the sources and that constitutes a means by which they can confront oneself. Al Hammadi emphasizes the keenness of the Qatari Forum for Authors to raise the cultural level of authors regardless of the diversity of their authorship and the source of their creativity.
In a similar speech, Mr. Faisal Al Suwaidi, Director of the Culture and Arts Department at the Ministry of Culture and Sports, affirmed that the ministry has established a group of specialized cultural and artistic centers in order to give more dynamism to cultural work, including the Poetry Center, Diwan al-Arab and the Qatari Forum for Authors, which tracks the impact of writing and follows the movement and progress of authors with a harmonious rhythm in all areas of creativity and authorship. He explained that the Writers of eloquent poetry Forum is a celebration of a distinguished poetic achievement, consisting of Arabic poetry collections, so it has become a source from which the very typical poetry is extracted, and a reference for martyrdom, reading and criticism.
Al Suwaidi added that the World Poetry Day is an opportunity in which poets regain a sense of poetic existence and work to perpetuate it and enhance its presence in the daily scene with new creativity, and it is also a day to spread poetry in earth and to spread moments of joy, because the need for poetry increases according to our need for life.
In his turn, the poet Shabib bin Arar Al-Nuaimi, Director of the Qatar Poetry Center “Diwan Al-Arab”, said that poetry has always been the language of conscience and sincere feelings, and that the history of poetry in Arab countries is very old, as it extended from the era of the suspended odes in the pre-Islamic era through the Islamic conquests to our present time.
Poetry has preserved its effective role as the poet preserved his message in reviving the values of his society and shedding light on the most important issues of his society, which reflects all the noble messages and human feelings. He also noted that the State of Qatar is concerned with poetry through the events, activities and competitions held by the Ministry of Culture and Sports, which carry social and family values.
The “Writers of Eloquent Poetry” forum included two sessions. The first session was moderated by Hessa Al-Suwaidi, during which the poet Muhammad Al-Sada talked about the importance of gaining experience in writing poetry and getting topics inspiration from the surrounding environment.
While the poet Abdul Rahman Al-Dulaimi addressed the situtation of poetry within the literary genres. The poet Dhafer Darkouchi offered advice to writers and poets on the importance of developing, reading and reviewing their writings constantly to improve the intonation for the better.
As for the second session of the forum, which was moderated by the journalist Saleh Gharib, Program Director at Qatari Forum for Authors, a number of issues were discussed. Dr. Imtenan Al-Smadi, Professor of Literature and Criticism at Qatar University, presented a paper entitled “The Character of the Noble Messenger in Poetry between Custom and Renewal”. She dealt with the history of the prophetic praises in poetry to continue throughout history until the era of Shawky, Ibrahim Toukan and Farouk Shousha, praising in this regard the Katara Prize “Poet of the Messenger” and the examples and resurrection of the Muhammadian poem.
For his part, Dr. Abdel-Haq Belabed, Professor of Literature, Critical Studies and Approach at Qatar University, presented an interposition entitled “The Return of Poetry, the Chapter of Poetry, the Position of Reading.”
In his turn, the critic Dr. Muhammad Al-Qasimi, Director of the Laboratory of Literary Studies, Linguistics, Media Sciences and Communication at the University of Sidi Muhammad bin Abdullah in Fez, explained that defining poetry in literary criticism requires awareness of a historical and an approaching vision, highlighting that the most important concepts of poetry are based on three main concepts: versification poetics, formalism poetics and classic poetics.
In fact, the versification poetics has proven its merit, originality, and its ability to transcend the limits of the terminology to be a systematic, studied and organized work. He also indicated that versification in its essence is grammar in its provisions that take into account the image of meaning in speech and the relationship between the parts of speech and not merely being satisfied when judging by grammatical rules.