Review (excerpt)
"The Journey And Other Poems" by Mahmud Kianush, pub. Knives Forks And Spoons Press. 2020 147 pages £12.00
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The mix of abstraction and lyricism, of modern and traditional, has a playful aspect which combines high-minded philosophical titles (Reality and Illusion/Being and Nothingness) with a more sensual language which is both down-to-earth and more immediate while also retaining a succinct sophistication. This is poetry which can be read aloud, declaimed in fact in a high rhetorical mode while embracing a sense of complexity within apparent simplicity. It’s beautiful stuff indeed.
The Journey & Other Poems is an astonishing book which combines different philosophical and literary traditions to create a celebration of the world and of our experience of it in a manner which feels both fresh and yet is based on accumulative materials. I could say a lot more about this but it’s the sort of collection which the reader should discover and ponder for his or her self. I hope this short review provides a useful way in and at least registers the existence of a body of work which I was totally unaware of.
Copyright © Steve Spence, 2021
to read the full review visit Litter Magazine:https://www.littermagazine.com/2021/03/review-journey-and-other-poems-by.html
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Cover art is by Mahmud Kianush:
here are a few related akkaashi
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