The Far Mosque

October 24, 2005
Moving between biblical and Qur'anic stories, sections of this debut explore questions of comparative faith: "Why not a religion of water in a time of great fires?" Painterly minimalism, open-field technique and Near Eastern traditions together give Ali a neatly varied verbal palette for his smart, quietly attractive poems. Single-line stanzas and unrhymed couplets portray visionary and partly abstract spaces where "all the eventual answers are nothing," and a questing reader "will sometime soon say: I am coming home now
." A sequence set in France finds the same calm conundrums in its cathedrals and beaches, with their "silent groundswell, the swell of silence," while in later poems Ali pays homage by name to Emily Dickinson, to Rumi and to the painter Agnes Martin. Readers who seek explicitly Islamic material will find it near the end of the book, where unrhymed sonnets and an accomplished ghazal trace a search for spirit in nature and in the void: "Night" advises a rapt observer: "You are no plagiarist of dusk./ Nothing in the sky equals itself." Ali has also published a novel, Quinn's Passage
; his unresting intellect and acoustic talents make him a poet to watch.

October 15, 2005
Ali, author of the novel "Quinn's Passage", reveals a rich and daring poetic voice in his first book of poetry. If one of the poet's tasks is to revive the mythological powers in things, Ali does so skillfully here. The poet aims to expand the space of meaning by relying on the juxtapositions of dense and deep imagery: -The wind over open water: Sharp howling/ Guitar strings breaking. - His poetry is reminiscent of the works of French poet René Char in its surrealistic style and lyrical fragmentations. In addition, the mystic voices of the East, which express a passionate yearning for a harmonious unity with absolute beauty, are echoed throughout most of his poems. Here the self delves inward to discover and celebrate the pure light of awakening: -One day in the marketplace, estranged and weeping/ you will understand the only far mosque is the one within. - Ali's poetry resists any easy interpretations and hence invites the reader to participate in the act of writing. Recommended for large public libraries." -Sadiq Alkoriji, Tomball Coll. & Community Lib., Harris Cty., TX"

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