{"id":6506,"date":"2011-06-22T03:23:45","date_gmt":"2011-06-22T07:23:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/?p=6506"},"modified":"2011-06-22T03:23:45","modified_gmt":"2011-06-22T07:23:45","slug":"poems-by-abdelmadjid-kaouah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/poems-by-abdelmadjid-kaouah\/","title":{"rendered":"Poems by Abdelmadjid Kaouah"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Working on Maghrebi anthology here in Paris \u00a0\u2014 Habib Tengour will be here shortly, so I’ll post in some haste \u2014 and translating poets for inclusion. Here are a few poems by\u00a0Abdelmadjid Kaouah<\/strong>, born in A\u00efn-Taya, near Algiers, in 1954. After the 1994 assassination of his friends\u00a0\u00a0Tahar Djaout<\/a> et Youcef Sebti<\/a> he exiled himself to the Toulouse areas where he works as a writer and journalist. he is the author of a dozen or so volumes of poetry.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

NECK<\/strong><\/p>\n

Over there Algiers<\/p>\n

behind fogs of images
\n& forests of salacious billboards
\na little girl sews up
\nher mother’s neck
\nbefore climbing back into
\nher crib.<\/p>\n

MODERN BAR<\/strong><\/p>\n

to Larmen<\/em><\/p>\n

Forty-three years old
\nPlace Bellecour
\nAfrican drums
\nbreak the silence
\nLouis the Fourteenth
\ndances reggae<\/p>\n

When will you finally<\/em>
\nshave off that beard<\/em><\/p>\n

Lyon,
\n21 June 1994<\/p>\n

MAJESTIC<\/strong><\/p>\n

There in a hotel lobby
\nListening to a bitter sweet music
\nBarely different from the one
\nSupermarkets pipe in for ambience\u2019s sake.
\nHow often haven\u2019t I sworn to myself not to break
\nthe line again.<\/p>\n

To write in a dignified<\/em> prose. Having all the appearances of a writing in prose, prosaic in fact. To the point of maintaining no link, no matter how confidential<\/em> with poetry, that incestuous sister<\/em>. Poetry, that heavily made up disrespectful<\/em> one.<\/p>\n

To mask an age of no interest to any client. One takes out one\u2019s pen, it could be one\u2019s sex, one points to the margin and one spreads one’s shadow and the ink in between the lines. At the other end of the margin, the margin of the invisible, one goes limp, instantly, by instinct<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Ever since there is no more rime, one adds more grime to the make up. Poetry, one spreads it on any handy mattress with or without springs, no one give\u2019s a hoot. One will trust in some obscurity of the language to look poetic, lyrical, epic\u2026, depending on the needs of a hypothetical market.<\/p>\n

A few tics.<\/em><\/p>\n

Interlaced with soundproof tick-tocks. A few metaphors, or even ritornellos and, presto, here are, made from odds and ends, vast semaphores to guide imaginary boats.<\/p>\n

Towards nowhere.<\/em><\/p>\n

When the poet himself amuses
\nHe believes in muses, they\u2019re his excuses and vain ruses.<\/p>\n

In Barcelona<\/em>,
\nnight\u2019s coming to rest, faster than the day, on simulacra. The sun hastens on its way between the Diagonal and the Passeig de Gracia, skirting the Crayon<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I write these lines without haste in the lobby of the Majestic, so far from Bab-el-Oued,
\njust to wait for the first metro
\nfor Fontana<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The night servants pass the vacuum cleaner between two conferences on boredom punctuated by the languorous violins of a Strauss disguised as a groom.<\/p>\n

I write this thick and heavy prose.<\/p>\n

Will it pass for
\na poem<\/em>?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Barcelona,
\nJune 9, 1996<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Working on Maghrebi anthology here in Paris \u00a0\u2014 Habib Tengour will be here shortly, so I’ll post in some haste \u2014 and translating poets for inclusion. Here are a few poems by\u00a0Abdelmadjid Kaouah, born...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[849,103],"tags":[1014],"class_list":["post-6506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-algeria","category-translation","tag-abdelmadjid-kaouah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6506"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6519,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6506\/revisions\/6519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}