Wounds of the Old Trees: Iraqi Poems

Since The Song of the Rhinoceros (1973) till his recent collections of poems entitled Wounds of the Old Trees (2011), the Iraqi poet Sadiq Assaieg proves to be a poet of vision, passion and sensation. For him, poetry is no more an act of inspiration, but it is a complex craft to be mastered and thought of. His poetry, since the sixties of the last century represents a sharp departure from classical and romantic traditions in Arabic poetry and shows a real affinity to modernity. His poetic language is rich with imagery, masks and mythology. He always shocks his reader and contradicts their horizon of expectation and urges them to share the poetic experience actively to negotiate the innate meaning of his poetic vision. His poetry is motivated by the pulse of time and inner insight of life. Experimentation, suspicions, rebellion and rejecting poetic and social conventions are but some of the targets and motifs of his poetry.

— Fadhil Thamir, Iraqi critic

The most prominent characteristic of the poetic text, written by the poet Sadiq Assaieg is the Collage, as plastic art, optical image, the internal rhythm and drama play a role in building the overall structure of the poem. Hence comes his dissimilarity with the most prominent symbols of the sixtieth generation. He declares without hesitation that he entered the field of poetry through the (white screen), but he remained alone, introverted on his poetry and happy in his solitude, engrossed in the search for his lost paradise and immersed in solving the mysterious equation of being human. The poet Sadiq Assaieg is an ascetic human being, does not want more than spiritual needs secure in this life, and confirms his presence as a poet and a man in spite of the continuous rotation between anxiety and stress.

— Adnan Hussein Ahmed, extracts of the interview published in Azzaman Iraqi newspaper