Not for me, I’m afraid.
Hasib Hourani’s “rock flight” is a work of protest and politics. I have no issue with that. Indeed, given the state of the world – and some of the so-called ‘leaders’ in our world (our world, not theirs) – there should perhaps be more. But I do I have an issue with the fact that “rock flight” isn’t really poetry. It’s filled with gimmickry, prose, diagrams, bulleted lists, redaction; a hybrid kind of writing.
Not that ‘hybrid’ writing is invalid; it clearly isn’t. But we paint ourselves into a corner with categorisation (and as with most things; we love to label…); so if something’s not prose it must be poetry… “rock flight” is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation; it is endorsed as ‘poetry’.
Then again, maybe that’s just my problem… Maybe I need to get over it.
But if we’re going to pursue putting creative writing into ‘boxes’ then we need more of them – though consider where that might lead: people love ‘boxes’, even those who may not wish to be labelled. [And with major global corporations rowing back on diversity and inclusion initiatives (to protect themselves ‘politically’), soon there will be societal boxes which are dangerous to occupy… Indeed, there already may be.]
So ‘prose’, ‘poetry’, ‘rap’, ‘hybrid’ maybe? Who knows?
As for “rock flight”, I couldn’t finish it not because it wasn’t my idea of poetry; I simply didn’t rate or like it.
Ian Gouge - Writer 