Contributing Editor, Carl Scharwath's interview of Peshawa Kakayi پێشەوا کاکەیی
Today, I have the pleasure to interview Peshawa Kakayi پێشەوا کاکەیی,, a Kurdish poet from Iraq. I am happy to showcase international writers for ILA Magazine and Peshawa is extremely accomplished. Before we begin, I will share with you, his biography, and some publishing credits: Peshawa Abdalla Abdalrahman, also known as (Peshawa Kakayi پێشەوا کاکەیی,), is a Kurdish poet and writer. He was born on April 19, 1984 in Qaladze, Kurdistan Region of Iraq. He completed his primary, secondary and high school education in the same city. In 2008-2009, he obtained a bachelor's degree in political sciences from Sulaimaniyah University. He has published articles in many newspapers and publications. He has published 21 collections of poems, written and published a research book, and a book on poetry based on four in-depth interviews. He also wrote a literary diary. That's an average of 24 books so far. He also has four books ready for publication, two of which are research and two of which are poetry. Several studies and readings have been conducted on his poems. In addition, ten undergraduate studies have been conducted on his poems. Peshawa has also translated four books into Persian. He has also translated a collection of poems into Arabic. He contributed toward a book entitled 'Poets for Peace', published in Tunisia. He has also contributed to an anthology book entitled 'The Multinational Pen Soldiers', prepared and published by Mohammad Shamsul Haq Babu of Bangladesh. Several of his poems have also been translated into other languages including Albania, Uzbek, Spanish, Igbo, English, Indonesian, Bengali, Bosnian, Polish, Chinese, Russian, Serbian, Arabic, Persian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz and Macedonian. He has also been published in the United States in the first and second volumes of the American poetry journal, 'Paradise on EARTH', an international anthology. He has also received seventeen awards in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
CARL: Good Morning, Peshawa, thank you for your time today and we, at ILA Magazine, welcome you. My first question is:
Can you tell me about your journey as a poet? What inspired you to pursue poetry and how has your style evolved over time?
**
PESHAWA KAKAYI: Good morning, Carl. Thank you very much and ILA Magazine for talking about poetry and I hope to answer your questions briefly.
Interestingly, poets have deviated from discussing the relationship between [poetry and travel] and have given their own interpretations and definitions of the word [travel]. It can be roughly summarized as follows: Travel is a kind of fantasy, a dream of a distant place; To travel is to open up new times and spaces. Traveling is a process of finding people. Travel is kind of the beginning, and it's about finding life. Travel is about returning from afar, discovering the beauty around you. Traveling is about changing your mood and enjoying a new experience. Traveling is writing a break in life, as is a digression from a discourse; Journey is the transportation of the body and the flow of the soul. These views are varied. [I have previously discussed travel in a book, divided it into three stages, which I will not discuss here]. In my opinion, [poetry and travel] are a dual pair since the beginning of man, separated, and the poet's job is how to bring them closer. It is an integrated combination of fantasy and journey, self and object, and the relationship between the two is inextricably intertwined and interdependent. They have an eternal intimacy. When we compare poetry to travel and language, it becomes a spiritual act. What it says [travel is impossible], of course, more people might tend to a more down-to-earth view that [travel is about going back from afar and discovering the beauty around you]. In the face of a particular topic, different discussions are always appreciated. I have traveled myself, many times, and I have traveled to a country as a culture, but poetry has always filled the gap for me, or I can say that I have always filled the gap in poetry. This search takes my imagination to places, and I search poetry into the world of being.
In real life, there have always been rush flights and static flights, as well as flying poetry and rooted poetry. This is another common point that [poetry] and [travel] can prove to each other. To travel statically is a profound experience and it is to watch change; - to see how the world works before. your eyes and how it dwells in your heart. Both poetry and travel aim to awaken the richness and fullness of life, to awaken one's selfhood and image, and to better cope with the world and people with their limitations, a kind of conscious humility. So, [the journey] is an inner life through outer changes, or a kind of reading in which the earth is a study room, reading the great works of life on earth.
Returning to the subject of [poetry and travel], a search I can say travelers on the road! Thus, expressing that [the poems are on the road], on the road, it is an ancient culture, a vital tradition, and one source of literature that cannot be ignored. ['Homer's Epic', 'The Fools', 'Against the Knights on the Way', 'Marco Polo', 'Ibn Battuta on the Way'...], there are more than thousands of poems, many of which related to the theme [on the road and through the road]. Therefore, there are many types of travel and many ways, where poetry encounters distant places and strange areas and enters another space, appreciates different landscapes, introduces different nations and understands unequal cultures. Travel means space first of all. When a traveler keeps an unforgettable time and makes it a good memory, travel means time.
I am not advocating what is the source of inspiration. If the poet himself, is not a living being, does not look, does not. understand, and does not have the ability to use language, inspiration does not cause him to seek poetry. Because inspiration without delving into the nature of things, poetry does not give itself as poetry, it remains only within the framework of poetry. Therefore, the use of inspiration in poetry has two meanings; one is that the poet seeks the essence and characteristics of language, which is [the farmer of words]; the other is that the poet, like a farmer, should be loyal to the land, fruits and nature and preserve his life of diligence. It can be said that a person who has written many poems is not a poet if he has no intersection with the above two dimensions, if he has not established language consciousness.
Therefore, true poetry must have its own aesthetic language art. It is true that all art has its own aesthetic language: [Painting, music novels and poetry...], all having their own aesthetic language. The language of aesthetics here does not only refer to the artistic medium used by each art. Painting, for example, uses lines and colors as a medium of expression. Music uses sound as a medium of expression. Literature uses language as a medium of expression. Then we can say that the aesthetic language of painting is lines and colors, the aesthetic language of music is sound and the language of the aesthetic language of novels is the movement, events and words of characters. The aesthetic language of poetry is imagery. Therefore, inspiration alone cannot color the image of poetry, even if it comes from all colors. This has its reasons, because inspiration must adapt to language and push language to reproduce language and thought, causing explosions of the tongue. If inspiration reaches the explosion of language, it is because the poet himself is filled with language, so that inspiration comes from there. In my opinion, inspirations are located in language. That is, there is no inspiration in poetry that does not fit the environment of the language in which the poet lives, thinks and writes. Inspiration is part of poetry. The poet's job is to choose language as well as inspiration. Finally, [language, thought and inspiration] together, form the imagery of poetry.
As for the way my poetry has developed over time, it has developed within language and time, itself. However, it has not yet stopped evolving because language and time work in poetry. When language and time are busy turning poetry, the poet must think about self and subject. In this way [style, poetic art, poetic language, poetic imagination, poetic materials, themes such as self and subject, the environment of language and thought in poetry], must continue to be within the poet's soul and worldviews; so for me, style is constantly changing. There are forty years, following the same pattern. The language, imagination, the art of poetry, the subject and the self, are shaped by giving themselves to a style. On the contrary, I am constantly in favor of improving and changing the style in poetry. For example, I have two poetry manifestos so far, called ['Poetry-the-Way'] and ['Poetry-the-Way-to-People'], however, I work in other ways outside of these two manifestos. Therefore, this language and time makes me constantly admit that poetry has not yet evolved, and I must try to find other corners within the framework of how I view poetry, not how the corners of the world of poets have worked. What has become apparent to me is that poetry still has many dark holes to illuminate. So, I go back to the beginning of your question that the journey of poetry for me is in [language, thought and time] with the help of inspiration in the context of how I think about poetry and language. Because inspiration for any poet comes from the imagination and the environment in which he thinks and thinks. He may not link his thinking environment to the geography of his place of residence alone. Therefore, for me, the place as the whole earth and the whole of the souls is the subject of my work, not a particular geography and a particular nation. This makes me constantly travel through my thoughts and imagination to get to know others.
CARL: What themes or subjects do you find most compelling to explore in poetry? How do you choose the topics you write about? ** PESHAWA KAKAYI: Many subjects are important to me because poetry itself looks for many subjects, language, art, psychology and hundreds of aspects related to poetry...I am engaged in poetry research myself, that is, I have devoted a lot of time to research through poetry about the culture of nations, history, language, geography and other subjects. Science, imagery, culture...have stopped. What makes me research these topics is the importance to write and comment on environmental poetry, discourse in poetry, film in poetry, scientific poetry and many other topics.
CARL: Are there any poets or literary figures who have had a significant influence on your work? ** PESHAWA KAKAYI: I have always said that there is no person or creature that has not been influenced by another being or another person. For example, among animals, if we look at the appearance, movements, feelings, and sensations of animals, we see that bears may wish for the strength of lions. Or hundreds of birds wish for immortality and envy the burning of the squirrel. The same is true for human beings, whether you are a poet or a simple character, one day you will be influenced by the movements and words of someone else, because he said something important before you that you wanted him to say! Therefore, identify a child who may be influenced by his mother's words among his parents. I have read many poets and writers in my writing life and have admired dozens of them. From Persian literature to English, Spanish, Arabic, European, Chinese and in my own language, there have been hundreds of people I have admired, but I have always looked at myself as a river that goes on and doesn't stop, I mean, I admire others to the extent that they exist as they are and influence society. In addition, I have tried to be like myself.
CARL: What is your best advice to give to a new poet or writer?
**
PESHAWA KAKAYI: One of the problems facing new poets today, is that they start writing through mental and self-related problems, rather than the continuous process of thinking, reading and practicing poetry. However, poetry carries a message in some way, and advice sometimes takes place in a message. Poetry must be made a profession as a friend. I have made myself an entrepreneur for poetry itself, because in the Middle East, even if you have hundreds of books, you cannot live on your own work, but you have to do something else to develop your other profession, whether it is poetry or any other genres. So, I don't want to talk about advice directly here, but I'll write a few quick surveys that young people should look at:
* (1) Writing poetry through experimentation and imitation, but without publication: The reason for this is that poetry has many different types, many styles, artistic aspects and imagery...Tearing these pages of poetry becomes pain for you. Through this pain, you can fly with poetry and continue or walk away from it.
* (2) Reading various works of poetry regularly: The simplest way is to read poetry from contemporary literary magazines, but also read old poetry. as the poet must be aware of the tradition of poetry in order to succeed in new poetry. A true poet must go through a long period of training and accumulation. This accumulation can only be achieved through reading. Of course, there is another aspect to do.
* (3) Playing with style and art of poetry: This will help to build the poet's abilities that his/her poems carry language and thought. He is busy finding another kind of poetry. * (4) Imagery in poetry: This is thorough adaptation or deviation from the weights and weights that you deal with for the sake of poetry. *(5) Editing the poem after the poem is finished: No poem is good if you do not overwrite the poem itself after the poem is finished. Every poem, through nature, has its roots in the spoken, so if we want to free speech from the spoken, we must critically rewrite the poem after it is finished.
*(6) Choosing themes and subjects: Fro today's world and contemporary poetry, we must be aware of the world of environment, discourse and science. There are hundreds of threads and topics that carry a lot of creature problems. But the environment, discourse and science are three important themes for our world today that include other humans.
CARL: How do you see poetry's role in society today? Do you believe it has the power to provoke change or shape perspectives? If so, how do you hope your poetry contributes to this? ** PESHAWA KAKAYI: This question is both complex and problematic in itself. Therefore, poetry has always struggled with the complexity of this question and answered in questions. Problems have been encountered. That is why poetry as the mother of genres, has adapted to this problematic pain, because poetry is a listener as well as a critic. Poetry has always existed in the long spiritual life of people. In my opinion, poetry [is an immortal spiritual style], I say this not only because I agree with poetry as a style, but because poetry has always soothed the human soul since ancient times, the human soul is still overflowing with goodness and beauty. Poetry is a great symbol between rationality and irrationality, and a bridge between one's own world and the objective external world. On the river of time and history, poetry is like a ship that blows in the wind. Poetry embodies the immortal value of human spiritual life. Therefore, the role of the poet in society , is not a new subject. I think that opens, whether in the old or the new society, have a choice of role, or another words, a kind of maturity of his role by society of the masses. In the early period of society, it can be said that in the long periods of ancient society, according to my reading experiences, the identity of poets of that period must be combined with the identity of the chief or priest. [The poet, the president, the priest, the mullah, the rabbi] who is in charge of the highest religious ceremony are also poets in a sense, all using a secret language to connect the channel between the world of men and the gods. As far as the new society is concerned, there are actually very few so-called [professional] poets in the new sense as we think of it. Most of these poets have other professions, some are professors, some are doctors, some are journalists, and some are politicians. Among the modernist poets, [Aragon, Pablo Neruda, Octavio Paz, Léopold Seder Senghor, Aimé Césaire, etc...], are both poets and politicians. Poet groups may increasingly be marginalized in this economically oriented society. There is also a problem that there are more people who write poetry than there are people who read poetry. Historically, how its audience is chosen has revolved between the elite and the general public. This problem has also a common problem faced by poets since ancient times. Of course, writing poetry is always a form of individual behavior of poets, and the works of poets can only be the most singular voices that face their own hearts and at the same time, face the world, especially in the present age of materialism, man has become less and less supported, spiritually. Poetry maintains a special relationship with the human mind, to save the loss of the innovative human soul and pour pure roots on the dry and desolate soul. The poet's individual writing has a strong divine color. A successful poet must be loyal to his soul, which is the most basic principle he must possess as a poet. The poet is the conscience of the nation and the conscience of the times, which is why poets have been loved by readers for thousands of years. But now the poet not only writes, but also puts his political and literary views into action. I have tried to become a poet in action. Our current world is going through a constant process of renewal. In such a situation, there are various political, cultural, power and ecological issues that intelligent people must pay attention to and think about in this space. It is not only the responsibility of politicians to pay attention to these issues, but also of all contemporary writers and poets. Not only must we face our own hearts, but more importantly we must face the complex world and culture. Writers and poets must not only be attached to the soil under our feet but must also have human consciousness. I think this kind of consciousness requires that we pay attention to the current conditions of human life an human destiny. Writers and poets never write in isolation. It is difficult for us to imagine what contemporary work a writer and poet can write if he is isolated from the culture of the time in which he lives. We must always participate in contemporary real life and bring our cultural ideals to life. With the development of society and human history, the content and style of poetry has constantly developed and has become the beautiful language and literature of people's favorite. Human nature in pursuit of beauty encourages people to express their thoughts and feelings in beautiful language.
CARL: What do you like best about our ILA Group and Magazine? ** PESHAWA KAKAYI: Both a selection of poems and a poetic meeting. I wish you success and continuity for your magazine that visited me. ** CARL: Thank you, Peshawa, for your time with us today. We at ILA wish you great success in your future and please keep us informed with your poetic journey.
Publications of Peshawa Kakayi: * (1) Residue of Breaths, Poetry Collection, 2008 * (2) I am, I guard flowers, poems, 2011 * (3) Garden-Your Love, Poetry, 2015 * (4) From the house of aunt Khunche house, I went to Saeed's son-in-law. Open text, 2017 * (5) American letter with the flavor of poetry, Novel poem, 2018 * (6) Africa and the earth with the flavor of poetry; poetry, prose, narration, 2018 * (7) Cosmology, Poetry, 2019 * (8) Rebuilding the light on the return of Zoroastrian Ahmed Sala. Investigation. 2020 * (9) Immortal path. Poem-Book. 2021 * (10) Poetic thought and language imagination, about poetry, 2021 * (11) Ocean and Antarctica with the flavor of poetry; Open text-Novel poem, 2022
* (12) Through the Window, I Look at Nali's Donkey; Poem-prose, 2022 * (13) Shiraz letter for Fatana Khadmfars, Literature * (14) Return of Africa, Cover 1, 11 books, Novel poem
About our Contributing Editor/Interviewer, Carl Scharwath: Carl Scharwath is from the sunshine state of Florida. He is the Art Editor of Minute Magazine, a Contributing Editor/Interviewer of ILA Magazine and Contributing Editor/Interviwer of CreatiVIngenuity Magazine. His work appears globally, with 150+ Journals selecting his poetry, short stories, interviews, essays, art/photography and most recently, plays. Carl is the author of seven (3 literary and 4 photography) books.
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