MEMORIES.
where there’s no one,
i rejoice a whole world!
with nothing on the ground,
i hear but love in sound;
with nothing to see in eyes,
i alone enjoy green fields;
when there’s for me no beat
gabriel lends his hand to
complete;
smiling faces by me stand,
eager to hold me in hand;
all i’ve is not today’s world:
for i find new joy in the old.
for all my joy there’s but one
place where i run, time
and again.
where i play in its blessed rain.
there i never feel alone–
but feel, know i am the one.
alot of me ftom today is left kept
and hid,
so much of me there is lit!
not a thing for me is vain,
what a world of joy to gain:
for there i no more grieve.
there is but joy to weave–
not anymore for me to miss,
all joy is mine at will, this!
Born in Mogadishu, Somalia, the poet was raised in a politically prominent family; yet in his early teens, the poet and his family emigrated to the United States, where the poet lived for nearly two decades. Kassim started writing and publishing poetry while in junior college, at a relatively young age, and almost spontaneously fell with poets and poems, and has so been ever since; particularly the Romantic poets–William Wordsworth, George Gordon, Lord Byron, John Keats and Percy Shelley–drew his attention and engaged hìs intellect, so much so that, to this day, they represent more or less ‘the epitome’ of whatPoesymeans to him.The poet now lives in his land of birth and works as a freelance journalist and writer. Kassim is currently preparing manuscript of what he hopes to be his first book of poetry; the poet feels a particular attachment to John Keats and Percy Shelley for their vehement opposition to the inhumane effects on ordinary people such as the consequences of industrial development in their lifetimes–and reminds us that technological progress today does the same: ‘Weep, for the world is wrong!’ (emphasis supplied) (Percy Shelley, “Dirge”)