The Minimalism in Poetry

literary review on the minimalism in poetry.

Poetry has a soul and body. The pre-textual elements are the soul and the textual artistic elements are the body. The pre-texual elements are the psychological, cultural and the ideological basis of the poet (Anwar Jaber; The Literary Expressionism ). What will happen if the poet introduce the poetry soul without body. Yes, that is the minimalism in poetry where the ideas transfigure by themselves with minimal textual shape. The minimalism is type of abstract and of course not the abstract text but abstract soul.

Technically the minimalist poem is the poem with minimal words to express the idea and it can range from one letter ( one letter poem), one word poem , one line poem, three lines poem and middle size concentrated poem.

We find the one letter and one word poem in Anwar Jaber minimalism. In tessellation 1 ( the poetry collection of 2017 ) we find one letter poem titled (W)

One Letter Poem (W)

W

To read the one letter poem you should know the poet to know his paratextual elements. Anwar Jaber is from Iraq; the wars land and his poetry filled with the war themes, so we can realize that the (W) in (W) poem refers to (war) to express its effect and impaction on the poet and his people.

Another one letter poem of Anwar is titled (T) from his collection (TRUMP)

One Letter Poem

T

When we know that Anwer write a poetry book on USA President Donald Trump and his policy in middle east titled (Trump) and this poem from this collection we can realize that this (T) refers to Mr. (Trump).

So the information about the pre-textual elements are important to read the one letter poem and this is also correct ti the one word poem.

In Tessellation 1 of Anwer Jaber we find many poems of one word poems like poem titles (Warsson) :

 

 

One Word Poem

Warsson

By the previous information and explanation, we can see that this word is a compound system of two word (wars) and (son), and this phrase (wars son) occurs repeatedly in Anwar poetry.

Another one word poem of Anwar Jaber titled (Farmersson):

 

One Word Poem

Farmersson

 

And when we know that the poet is a farmers’ son and the phrase of (Farmers son ) appears so much in his poetry we can see that this ( farmersson) refers to that phrases. These piece represent the (extreme minimalism) and from the extreme minimalism is the ( two words poem ). Also in (Tessellation 1),there are many ( two words poem) like a poem titles ( Red Tears):

 

Two Word Poem

RED TEARS

And when we remember that the poet is from the wars land, we know that these two words refers the wars catastrophes and killing and the red is the sing of the blood.

Another type of minimalism of poetry can be one line, three lines and this the usual minimalism and there is a long minimalism which represented by a middle size condensed concentrated poems.

 

Examples of the usual minimalism are Haiku poetry, like the following Ahlam Albyati:

1..Combs her hair

Like the sun

A tree on the bank

 

2..Wet

Under the apple tree

The street cat

 

 

We can see the beautiful whispering in these pieces with very limited expression and disclosure.

Another example of minimalistic Haiku also appears with we can find this in the following pieces

Radhwan Alghezzi

 

1..Above the captain's hat

mostly

the moon falls asleep.

 

 

 

2... From the mouth of the frog

In the summer's nights

the moon bathed .

We can see the concentrated language and the very limited expressive field but as we know the characters of Haiku make the para-textual depth appear limited despite the artistic and symbolic elements of these minimalistic pieces.

The last type of minimalism is the middle size poem minimalism where the poem had been written with very concentrated language like ""Smiley Dawn" by   Karima Dahmani.

"Smiley Dawn"

Karima Dahmani

She Whispers to me: _

Cork stones love the Arab world

Whenever

The wave took her

She returned to the Shore with resistance

Temptations of the alienation

Asks for help

Of marine balconies

Which picks out the moonlight

Your name, our Arab homeland

Is more wonderful than the democracies

Your Drops are watches in my wrist

You are the center of gravity

From your flowers

The dawn gets up

To learn the sun the presence.

 

We can see the very concentrated idea and the very limited expressive tools in a very compact piece.