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| Photo of Nadim as Posted to His Twitter Page |
I'm still not entirely sure what to think about this story from The Guardian about a four-year-old U.K. boy-poet who just got a book deal from Walker Books. The publisher plans to release a collection of Nadim Shamma's poems this summer, and the little boy has already been interviewed by the Sunday Times and Sky News. I tend to worry a little about any inadvertent pressure being put on this precocious little boy to keep producing poems, but his Sky News interview, during which Nadim had to be reminded on-air that putting his finger up his nose "on live telly" is not a good idea, gives me hope that he is not letting all of the instant fame bother him very much.
And then, too, there's this bit from the article:
Nadim himself sounded excited, although not excessively so, about the book deal. “I like writing poems especially about nature. I feel happy that my poems will be in a book,” he said. “When my poems are in a book, can I please have a copy?”
Personally, no matter how much poetry I have tried to read, I remain a near poetry-illiterate to this day. But from what I see of the poems posted to Nadim's Twitter account (@nadimthepoet), he may be one of the few poet's whose work I am entirely comfortable reading.
Nadim is a talented young man, and being able to see the world through the eyes of a child capable of expressing his thoughts so well should be a moving and refreshing experience for readers around the world.
He's very good isn't he? And this from another near poetry illiterate (and I have tried).
ReplyDeleteI'm fascinated that he is thinking so much about his emotions at this age and trying to express them. I know that he "dictates" his poems to his mother, and that she formats everything for him, but he is certainly remarkable.
DeleteI'm not much for poetry either, but I do like that one about the garden.
ReplyDeleteI like the way his mind works. He still has the voice of a child, but there are simple things there worth pondering.
DeleteChildren often have a gift of description that gets lost over the years. I've seen a couple of articles about Nadim recently. I hope he isn't getting too much attention too early.
ReplyDeleteThat's what is nagging at me, too. I hope he isn't pushed too hard by his justifiably proud mother to keep producing poems to the point that he burns out on everything "intellectual."
DeleteI do like the poems you quoted. Do you think he really wrote them without any help from anyone else? Or am I just too cynical these days?
ReplyDeleteHe dictates to his mother and she writes everything down for him, formatting and spelling words correctly, so that is a legitimate question. I get the feeling that it starts out very conversationally, and goes from there. The percentage of her input hasn't been questioned anywhere I can find, but you do have to wonder.
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