Adeeb Kasem

Sadness the King and Other Poems Adeeb Kasem

The following poems were written without the intention of being collected together in a single volume, hence their variety. This volume collects together introductions to epic poems not yet written, Satanic hymns and nursery rhymes, Dadaist experiments, poems inspired by English and American literature, poems inspired by Chinese and Japanese literature, moral poems, metaphysical poems, and poems based upon my dreams. The collection of "Dadaist Haikus" included here had previously been published under the title A Garland of Kisses and Tears, a volume which I have since taken out of publication. I have decided to republish them here because I am fond of them and think that they have some worth, but due to their brevity they belong together with other poems rather than as a standalone volume. I have named this collection after my favourite poem in this collection, "Sadness the King," because it is indeed the god of Sadness, the supreme lord, who rules over all of these poems, just as he rules over all of life. All his life an artist does nothing else but decorate the tapestry of his funeral pall. In this volume I merely add a few more decorations to my own funeral pall. Over the course of the year in which I have written these poems, I have grown increasingly certain that the human race will perish quite soon due to global warming, and thus I have grown increasingly certain that none of my works, nor the works of any other, will survive. Faced with the apocalypse, I nonetheless continue to create new works out of instinct. And it is to this instinct for creation that I consecrate these poems.