Ekphrases: Book One

by Saad Ali

About the Book Book One of Ekphrases is the third book of poetry by Saad Ali. It's the first installment in his anthology of ekphrases. On this occasion, the poems are born out of Ali's interpretations of the artworks (paintings) of various Western (European and American) artists-from past and present. The poems are not merely descriptions or elaborations of the themes, messages, subjects and objects of and in the paintings, but rather his poetic discourse is much more engaging in that it is an embodiment of the stories within stories of human stories-manifesting as the consequence of an interaction between (the minds of) a philosopher-poet and an artist. Also, the main components of Ali's poetic discourse i.e. contemplation and satire become prominent-embodying reflections on the fundamental questions of why, what, how, when, where, and who vis-�-vis existence and being (in general) and, more specifically, the human condition(s). Here, the instances of the phenomena of love, hate, fear, courage, nostalgia, remorse, redemption et cetera have been invoked-even at the subjective level. As always, the book is an invitation to all for both an individual and a collective contemplative and reflective odyssey. So that we may be able to interpret and comprehend the intricacies and niceties of existence and human life in a better (and/or different) way.

132 pages, Paperback

Published January 31, 2020

About the author

SAAD ALI (he/him) (b. 1980 CE in Okara, Pakistan) is a bilingual poet-philosopher & literary translator. He has been brought up and educated in the UK and Pakistan. He holds a BSc and an MSc in Management from the University of Leicester, UK. By profession, he is an Educationist and a Consultant (Academic Research, Management, Marketing & Communication). Ali possesses a broader worldview, which is a result of his experiences gained from having lived in a variety of cultural settings such as Asia, Europe, Middle East, and Australasia. The cogs of his existential machinery are oiled by the muses of arts.

His new collection of poems, Owl Of Pines: Sunyata (AuthorHouse, 2021), is an homage to vers libre, prose poem, and ekphrasis. He has translated Lorette C. Luzajic’s ekphrases into Urdu. His work appears in The Ekphrastic Review, The Mackinaw, Synchronized Chaos, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Lotus-eater, BRAWL Lit, Pandemonium Journal, Immagine & Poesia, two poetry Anthologies by Kevin Watt (ed.), two e-Anthologies at TER, Poetry in English from Pakistan – a poetry anthology by Ilona Yusuf & Shafiq Naz (eds.), and elsewhere. He has been nominated for the Best of the Net Anthology and Best Microfiction Anthology. His ekphrases have been showcased at the Bleeding Borders, Art Gallery of Grande Prairie in Alberta, Canada.

Some of his influences include: Vyasa, Homer, Attar, Rumi, Nietzsche, Dostoyevsky, Freud, Jung, Kafka, Tagore, Lispector et alia. He enjoys learning different languages, travelling by train, and exploring cities/towns on foot. His favourite sport is putting his gray matter to test at chess. At the end of a long day, he prefers to unwind with the classic/psychedelic rock music.

To learn further about his work, please visit: www.saadalipoet.com (forthcoming), and/or FB/IG/X: @owlofpines.