Prose Poems

by Saad Ali

of Prose Poems is the fourth book of poetry by Saad Ali. It's the first installment in his anthology of Prose Poems. The poems, on this occasion, are a homage to the most contentious form of the literary art i.e. prose poem. The ekphrases, on this occasion, are inspired by the paintings of a number of renowned classical, modern, postmodern and contemporary painters such as Michelangelo, Munch, Dali, Dix, Chagall, Luzajic, et cetera. The literary critics profess that what differentiates this form of poetry from verse, rhyme, et cetera is its trademark id est absence of line breaks. Of breaks-there are none here in Ali's poetic discourses either. Of lines-there is a plethora of them here committed to capturing of all manner of events (from most simple to most complex) in human life. The book, inadvertently, is a tribute to Ali's hallmark apparatuses i.e. contemplation and satire that take on existence and human condition in a rather direct and concrete fashion here; whereby, reflecting on the instances of fear, nostalgia, remorse, redemption, hate, affection, romance, courage et cetera-in both subjective and objective manner. Besides being a tribute to one of the profoundest human inventions i.e. language (and its subsequent facilitations such as literature, et cetera), this florilegium also is an invitation to all (human beings) for an individual and collective reflection on existence and human condition(s)-in both subjective and objective manner.

202 pages, Paperback

Published May 22, 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.