The Falcon and the Shackles of the Wind

The Falcon and the Shackles of the Wind, the latest of poet Abdul Moneim Hammandi’s fifteen poetry collections, published by the General Union of Palestinian Writers and Authors, February 2024.

The collection includes 26 poems, crafted around homeland, love, and friends.

In his new collection, poet Abdul Moneim Hammandi reaffirms his language rich in symbols and multiple meanings, and his expression of freedom in the face of tyranny and oppression. As a reader who enjoys poetry, I can sense that he uses elements of tension, contradiction, and beauty to deliver his message. He crafts his poetic images with the skill of a masterful creator, releasing them to cascade with beauty and sweetness in a desolate space.

He possesses an aesthetic authority and a poetic language of supreme refinement and sensitivity, sending a glimmer of hope into our lives, releasing the penguin’s cry against the storm that destroys the sea’s beauty.

In his first poem of the collection, “Where Do I Begin the Story?” he says:

O people of (Iram), persisting in your transgression Bloodlines are but a delusion And the rot of bread stained with ash From which night is the new dream born? From darkness From the breaking of jasmine.. from mourning From the deep-rooted elegies. From which night?

In many of his poems, we see the soaring of imagination and the singing for those he loves — homeland, beloved, and friends. He is a lover of life with all its noise, bitterness, sweetness, and the softness of its nights and conversations.

(Fifty years ago I stayed here Seeking shade under a willow Gazing at a balcony that might appear.. I see her.. and life becomes sweet. She was not like other girls. She is a nymph and I am a sorcerer of words And my imaginations are gushing springs)

And in another poem:

(With the ember of the soul, grief resists sorrows And sheds gloom From a poet walking in darkness From the intensity of pain, he cannot sleep When will a cloud awaken from the ecstasy of rain Embrace the child who dwells within him And don the cloak of the moon?)

Those who know poet Abdul Moneim Hammandi know the small child who lives within him, who knows no malice or ill-treatment in dealing with others. He is a lover of life, seizing his moments to find joy in the hope of another new day, playing with his insistence on remaining noble — caring for nothing in life but his love for his homeland, his creativity, his love for people, and the great poetic achievement he has offered, which constitutes a unique creative epic, Iraqi and Arab.

(I am still a river of abundance And my heart still Thrums with life and burning passion I carry within my depths A charm of love and an awakening of allure Perhaps I possess what soothsayers do not The night-teller.. and the madman.. I contend with the unseen and with doubts. And I open the abysses of severed wombs I have the rumble of thunder and silence And I climb mountains Does the wind envy the wings of doves? O jealousy of the mountain.. It gazes but cannot fly)

And he says in the poem The Chrysanthemum Flower:

(You are from the sky Not like other women Love and poetry share you And radiant silver You have in my blood a wondrous story Some of whose shades are a palm tree Where poets rest And prophets seek shelter in its shade…)

In his collection, Abdul Moneim Hammandi treats the poetic text as a stance — this is also evident in his poems about Palestine. He grants the recipient aesthetic values despite the sadness and ugliness of what he witnesses. He breaches the darkness with the beauty of his poetic images and opens windows of hope despite the harshness of reality.

We are in the presence of one of the great poets who managed to establish a uniqueness in his poetry unlike any other, despite the harshness of the non-creative judgments some may pass. The collection The Falcon and the Shackles of the Wind is one of his luminous poetic achievements, worthy of reading and of enjoying poetry.

Congratulations to our friend and dear brother Abu Barra’ on this achievement, with my love.