Today on our news roundup we take a look at the play dedicated to the life of Imadaddin Nasimi, the National Youth Poet Laureate of the US and the Children’s Poetry Archive.
“Dedication to Nasimi”
A play in honour of Imadaddin Nasimi, the great Azerbaijani poet, on the occasion of his 650th anniversary, has taken place as part of the events of the 10th Silk Road International Music Festival. The festival took place in Shaki.
2019 has been declared by Ilham Aliyev the President of Azerbaijan to be the “Year of Nasimi”. A new interest in his life and learning about his poetry has taken place in the country because of this. The renewal of interest in the life of the poet has been significant.
Over the years, Nasimi has been a source of inspiration to many Azerbaijani artists, with his tragic fate and his views giving them the inspiration they need to create sculptures and paintings of the poet.
Imadaddin Nasimi, who is most commonly known by his pen name Nasimi, was a great poet in Azerbaijan, and was the founder of the school of philosophical poetry written in the language of Azerbaijani. He also wrote in Arabic and Persian.
It is estimated that during his lifetime the poet wrote around 300 poems. These included rubais (quatrains), ghazals and gasidas (lyrics). It is considered the “Turkic Divan” is his most valuable work; it comprised 250 – 300 ghazals and over 150 rubais.
His influence on other poets wasn’t just limited to his lifetime. Following his death he was a great inspiration to other poets like Fuzuli and Khatai who wrote in the Turkic languages.
National Youth Poet Laureate Takes to the Stage
Amanda Gorman, the first National Youth Poet Laureate of the United States has written a poem in honour of the 243rd Birthday of America’s birthday. The television program “CBS This Morning” asked her if she would write them a poem for the occasion and the result was “Believer’s Hymn for the Republic”.
The poem was set to music, which was presented by the Boston Pops Orchestra. They are responsible for giving Americans some of their most famous concerts for the fourth of July every year. The performance took place at Boston’s Symphony Hall.
The Poetry Archive
Sir Andrew Motion and his charity The Poetry Archive have set up a children’s poem website with a view to preserving recordings of poets reading their own verse.
The site is aimed at those children in the 6-12 year age bracket, and in addition to including poems read by the authors themselves also contains recordings of other people reading poetry. Visitors to the site can even build up their own “playlist” of their favourite poems.
The patron of this new site is Michael Rosen . He is delighted that the site offers children a real chance to hear poetry, find things that they might like and just enjoy without a test or questions being a part of it. He hopes that the site which is available to anyone at any time will promote a real love and understanding of poetry in the children who visit.
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