Ancient Labour Room of Stars: A Review of Sidi’s The Poet of Dust by Carl Terver

To me, however, the heart of the collection is in the two poems, “Testament of Sand” and “Book of Dust.” The first poem is an adventure of metaphysical, surrealistic, and mystical wonder; and the second poem a response to it. Sidi’s persona is a voice behind Al-Arshad, which the long poem “Testament of Sand” is mediated with.

Al-Arshad poet of sand

Al-Arshad poet of dust

Al-Arshad poet of the testament

AL – AR – SHAD poet of mud

Al-Arshad poet of sand

poet of the ocean of sand

where the particles of sand are consumed

like fine grains of milk . . .

What follows is distilled madness, exposing Umar Abubakar Sidi as a hedonistic portrayer of poetry. As Al-Arshad’s adventure begins, words scatter on the page and go wherever they want, uninhibited by the inner voice of form or artistic ideology; but rather, spontaneity or abracadabra. Al-Arshad is many things, a witness to the creation of the world:

and when God said let there be light, You were there, as the Form of the

photon, the tiniest                                                                 quark of dust.

He is the one “who created mythos to distract Man from deciphering the original / face of God hidden behind palisades of clouds.” He also “carved out logos from the left ear of God.” To words, he is the “neutrinos, the photons, / protons of language, the central atom of speech.”

As his name echoes throughout the poem, you see him: a Persian poet-sojourner standing before a cloud of dust, staring into the meaning and the meaninglessness of things. Then the dust settles and he stares into the galaxy and finds an ancient labour room of stars: al-arshad ? What is the meaning of A L – A R S H A D ? The third alphabet in his name is AYN, and AYN is:

. . . The consonant of light, the eastern duck that flaps the wings

of emerald, the Butterfly, the Unicorn, the nebula of the horse; the ancient labour room of stars

This alludes to the Big Bang Theory of creation as an explosion of matter, dust, forming the galaxy. Thus, between Al-Arshad and the persona behind him, the impulse for inquiry begins, lingers, and ends with the Beginning—the origin of the universe. As Richard Ali describes, this makes Sidi “[reaffirm] the primacy of the poet as philosopher.” The persona behind Al-Arshad, inquiry-hungry, asks, “AL-ARSHAD, did God impregnate the sky to give birth to the universe and dhuljoom?” Did the universe impregnate space to give birth to the planet and stars?; Did the Dinosaurs impregnate dust to give birth to grass, the green gorilla, the genomes and genes?

Read the full review on Praxis Magazine Online

SAI Sabouke
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Sai Sabouke is a writer living in New Bussa, Nigeria. He’s a dervish who sees Sufism, history and language as formidable tools for society regeneration. His writing has appeared in Praxis Magazine Online and Agbowo. Sabouke loves beans, coffee and dreams of roasting the entrails of vultures.