But It Was an Important Failure — Omar Sabbagh
ISBN: 9781788640725
£9.99
In this fifth collection Omar Sabbagh establishes himself as a mature and distinctive voice in poetry with an extraordinary facility for language, an intense gift for observation, and a reflective and intuitive grasp of connections, especially to others. But It Was An Important Failure is an insightful, lyrical and confessional harvest of engaging poetry; the cultivation of a language garden for ‘the rigor and flow in the happiness of gardening.’
Clutch and release, grasp, clinch and let-go
In a small part of this curving parcel of life,
Black and thorough in the frame of the machineNeedling an eye through the seamless pouring
Of love twined by two—I sing my first and my
Final song, a lyric I hear on a harp without strings.From ‘Heartbeat’
Praise for Omar Sabbagh’s previous work:
Omar Sabbagh writes with rare intensity and generosity. Ideas and images overflow the lines of his verse, as well as their own boundaries, in a Shelleyan helter-skelter. Like Shelley, Sabbagh believes in the transformative power of poetry; unlike Shelley, he is also in love with language itself.
Fiona Sampson
Author biography
Dr. Omar Sabbagh is a widely published poet and critic. His work has appeared in, amongst others, Poetry Review, Poetry Wales, The London Magazine, Lighthouse, and Envoi. He has published several poetry collections with Cinnamon Press, including, But It Was an Important Failure and To the Middle of Love, as well as this debut fiction novella, Via Negativa — a parable of exile. His latest collection with Cinnamon is Morning Lit: Portals After Alia, Spring 2022. He has published critical essays on a number of writers, including George Eliot, Lawrence Durrell, and Henry Miller. Omar has a PhD in English Literature from King’s College London and is presently an Assistant Professor in English at the American University in Dubai.