No, I do not, cannot hope to
bear,
I would not summon my soul
for once again,
To be serious in love, and care
and dare
To wear its colors and expect to
remain
sane;
For my heart, any heart! can
be ‘moved’ only once!
Thus no more, my dear, I do not
care to go that way,
You suffer woes in needless
hopes without excuse,
For how should I hope to every
night and day
To own another whom he met
by mere chance?
So you may thus remain ‘in -live’
or ‘indifferent,’ as you
please!
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 what Poesy means 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”)