I Imagine A Lion

Author: Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore
Title: I Imagine A Lion
Publisher: The Ecstatic Exchange
Released: 2006

The sort of feeling that I get from Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore's poetry in 'I Imagine a Lion' is very much different to that of the two other works of his I have read. 'The Ramadan Sonnets' and to a lesser degree, 'Mars & Beyond' are both books of poetry with very strong, overpowering themes and, as a result those books are guided by these themes, almost led by the hand. Whilst both have their merits (indeed, for me, 'Mars & Beyond' is quite magnificent, inventive and original, as are a good number of poems from 'The Ramadan Sonnets') I was always very much aware of their themes when reading the individual poems, slightly too aware for my own liking. I say all this, and yet as a poet myself I would never release a collection of poems were they not to have some sort of connecting thread or theme. I suppose though, with poetry, and with the sort of poetry I love, subtelty is one of the most crucial things.

It is then, in 'I Imagine a Lion' that I feel that subtletly of Abdal-Hayy Moore the most. It is in this book that I get the best sense yet for the artist-soul that resides within his poet-body. There isn't much rigidity, and there aren't that many strict conventions either; it is, as life is, quite all over the place, and as the title suggest, it is very much a trip of the imagination. I believe that's why this book appealed to me, because it is such a bold proclamation, with so much emphasis on the imagination, and the conviction, belief in the power of that imagination. What is so fun is that the trip we are taken on is not for the sake of anything but that trip, that mental trip. The only thing which seems to be coloring or affecting it is feeling, strong waves of insistent passion and a more than occasional vulnerability- so warmly welcome when embedded within Moore's style, which has the occasional tendancy to veer toward dry sarcasm or slightly distant mythology.

I get up each day inside my assembling body that
snaps on as usual around me seamlessly.
Walk and talk somewhat normally. Lightning-bursts
flashing their zipper zig-zags occasionally
off-balancing me.

Head on top, feet where my feet should be.
But the world has a way of constantly
bumping into me. I want to see
through it, rub at the window of it constantly.

This book seems to round all the sides of the man and place them together, each side balancing out the other and making the reader, if open-minded enough, properly appreciate these different sides.

As for the poems, they are varied and wide in style. 'Day of Impasse'? Think of the Bob Dylan song 'Everything is broken', and add a few more layers of consciousness. 'Landscape (8/13)'? Pure, insistent imagination in word-form. Pure poetry. And should you want for the more Rumiesque story-telling poems, think of 'The Art Lesson', 'The Locked Box' or the mini-epic 'Fable of the flies', all of which affirm Daniel Abdal Hayy Moores' ability in putting across clever, nuanced messages through poetry.

Images and imagination run riot across this book. It is book for those with a love of poetry. For its own sake. For all the places it can take you, and the small words and images it can place in your head. All the things those images can inspire in you. All the feelings they can give you just for that moment. Priceless.

A small flame ignites in a sea-shell.

Y.Misdaq aka Yoshi, 11th & 19th December 2006

Buy 'I Imagine A Lion' on Amazon.com or through the official website