Omar Azam Poetry Gallery

Thanks for visiting my poetry gallery. I believe that poetry is an admixture of architecture, music, and emotion, mediated through the eyes and ears. I accept the work of all poets and am interested in poetry as a psychological and spiritual process and not as fixated on competing ideals of beauty. I value sincerity and can vouch that, though aesthetics is a consideration, I strive more for authentic expression.

Criticism is overvalued as a form of aesthetic communication, and this is to be ignored through my approach to art, music, poetry, social understanding, and self-knowledge. I write to fulfil my creative conscience and I am not offended if my poetry is unappreciated. Though, as in my psychological studies, I have found that one can usually suffer patience to demystify and humanize the artist if they so choose. I strive for a empathy toward all individuals. I am a student of social psychology and deeply cynical of social authority. I feel that some of my poetry serves an ethical purpose. Freedom is my current m.o., and this means I reserve the right to be personally misunderstood for the sake of artistic message and transpersonal empathy. In such cases, I have published pseudonymously.

In general, I write to soothe my soul, to create something beautiful out of experiences in life that otherwise would leave only despair, longing, or other ambivalent emotions. Though I am blessed and am living a dream life, other dream lives haunt me, as do the vagaries of the material, animal, and spirit world. I put these on here because I like to share with those who enjoy the act of creative expression. Fundamentally, my audience is myself. After that are fellow poets and creatives. Then, fans and students. I don't think of myself as a "poetry-snob," and aspire, as with all my work, to resonate with intelligent people from all walks of life. I am thankful for a sort of universal language that can provide such a direct and lyrical vehicle to portray very personal and emotional material. If you are new to poetry appreciation, I encourage you to read without prejudice and to enjoy immersing yourself in the experience. You can also visit Subjective Substance, a journal I once edited, to see what poetry means to me.

"Poetry is a process of putting down beautiful sequences of words out of subjectively memorable experience and ideas. The poetry is first and foremost for myself — it is therefore a langauge of its own, alternatingly renderable to the outsider. Aesthetics and authenticity are the focus. I create beauty from what was not beautiful. I reflect myself and am pleased with what I see. Always. I must be in order to be true to myself." - Omar Azam

Themes I perenially tackle are spirituality, identity, divinity, morality, and nature, My early poetry is neo-beat and modernist, Middle poetry is influenced by Eastern and religious texts..Late middle poetry is beat and farce. Current poetry is stream-of-subconscious, transpersonal, and cryptic.

There is a war going on in poetry as there has been in all areas of art since the beginning of free expression. There are those who say you need to be trained and vetted and study in the ivory towers for years until you know what good is. Like everything I have learned in life, I get just enough training to know when it is starting to stifle and burden me. My taste is the judge of what is good in my book. I leave it to you. I am an untrained poet. Of course, this is used ironically, since no one is untrained if they use their own senses and spirit to guide them. I have read and been taught in some sense by a few dear poets, but have refused indoctrination. My poetry is informed by the other aspects of existence such as self-knowledge, listening to others' stories, songwriting, etc. Just needed to clarify because I am somewhat revolted by eggheaded myopics in almost any field of inquiry or experience. And by those that fear their own originality in favor of sanctioned praise.

A sampling of my poems. Click on the title to read it. Click to hear it. (Esc pauses). These are listed from most recent to oldest.

Work published in poetry journals is here.