Today on My Poetic Side, we have a story of the poet”s view of the streets of London, the anniversary of the birth of Mirza Ghalib and Lana Del Rey”s spoken-word album.
London’s Empty Streets Revealed by Poet
The hustling bustling streets of the capital are something well known to anyone who has lived, visited or even worked there. A British-SomaLi Poet, Mohamed Mohamed, has revealed a completely different view of the streets as they appear on Christmas Day – uncharacteristically quiet and rather empty.
The footage which the poet has taken was commissioned by the Museum of London and is titled “Know London” It depicts the poet”s journey, by bicycle as he travels to London’s central mosque to pray.
Setting off from Clapham, and set to a backdrop of his own poetry, the video follows Mohamed over Battersea Bridge, down Kings Road, past Hyde Corner, Piccadilly Circus and then on to Trafalgar Square.
Since 2010, when he learned to cycle, the poet has been taking an annual trip into the centre of London to pray on Christmas morning, a peaceful and calm start to the day that for so many is filled with noise and bustle. He uses this time to escape, pray and write poetry.
The film that he has created, and which celebrates the rich diversity of the capital has been shared on the social media accounts of the Museum.
The digital curator for the museum said that this year they had wanted to show that the city has another side, one that appears at Christmas and is seen by relatively few people, and what better way to do this than from the point of view of someone who lives in the city and marks the 25th of December a little differently to the many of its other inhabitants.
Remembering Mirza Ghalib
The poet Mirza Ghalib is remembered this week on the occasion of his 222nd Birth Anniversary. Considered by many to be the greatest Urdu poet, Ghalib was born on 27th December 1797 as Asadullah Baig Khan in the Agra region. He was descended from the Aibak Turks and his family moved to modern Uzbekistan (from what was known as Samarkand) following the downfall of the Seljuk kings. His poetry was written under the pen name Mirza Ghalib. He is remembered for his verses of a poetic nature that are still relevant even now and are memorised by generations.
New Spoken Word Album for Lana Del Rey
Whilst she might be more well known as a singer, earlier this year Lana Del Rey published her first book of poetry. Now she has announced that at the beginning of 2020 she is planning to release a spoken word album.
The cost of the album will be roughly one dollar because she believes that thoughts should be shared and that by setting the cost as low as this more people will hopefully buy it and listen to these thoughts. She also stated that a proportion of the one-dollar cost of the album will be paid forward to Native American organisations.
The album will be a spin-off of “Violet Bend Backwards Over the Grass” her poetry book which was released in March; half of the proceeds from the book were also donated to Native American causes.
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