Today, I'm honored to share that George Wallace, renown NYC poet, has included a poem of mine in his section called Walt's Corner which appears in the Long Islander newspaper, April 2, 2026 issue.
The timing hits perfectly as April is both National Poetry Month and Arab American Heritage month.
Wallace chose "Qasida of Labid." The poem is a poem about a poem. Yes, it sounds "meta" or derivative. But when I was studying pre-Islamic classical poetry I learned about the epic poet-King Labid ibn Rabi'a. Legend has it that these poems were written in gold on fine Egyptian linen and hung on the walls of the Qa'aba because they were seen as the pinnacle of human expression. Here is a sample.
Labid was one of the legendary "Seven Poets" of the pre-Islamic era. His work was considered so supreme that it was part of the Mu'allaqat—the "Suspended Odes."
Most modern poets choose to write a villanelle or a sonnet for instance. Likewise, I'm participating in a literary form. "Qasida of Labid" of course pales in comparison, but recalls elements he employed. The specific form paraphrased in my poem is nasib—the traditional opening of a Qasida. Labid was the master of the "deserted campsite" trope. He would consider himself standing before a deserted Bedouin encampment and describe how nature (the wild animals, the torrential rains, the shifting sands) had reclaimed the land.
Why write in a 1400 year old style? Because it still works today. Nostalgia and nature are resonant themes that show up regularly in modern creative works.
My objective in writing the poem was to point back to his 8th-century observations so that more people would know about them. We think we are experiencing "modern" anxieties about the environment or the passage of time, but Labid was documenting that same feeling 1400 years ago.
I think Walt Whitman would have enjoyed reading Labid's pastoral laments. I'm not sure he knew about or had the chance to read them.
