Narrative Space in the Poetry of Maad al-Jubouri: A Reading of the Poem “Where the River Returns”

With the emergence of poetic modernity, contemporary Arabic poetry moved from its own narrow framework to new open spaces. In fact, modernity unleashed poetry and made it benefit from other arts. One of the most important features of poetic modernity is the combination of poetry and narration. This combination, as one of the results of modernity in thought and awareness, enriches poetry in terms of aesthetics and connotations, breaks the monotony of poetry, expands its circle, and the narration with its techniques and elements makes the poetic text vibrate with movement and makes it deeper and open. The Iraqi poet Maad al-Jubouri is one of the most prominent poets who used narration and its energies in their poetry. We see the narrative hegemony over the poet’s poetic space in all his works and the narrative and poetic overlap reached the degree of poetic sensitivity in him. This research attempts to study the presence of the narration in the poetry of Jubouri by studying his “Where the River Returns.” The article argues that the narration has an intense presence in the poem and the poet uses it creatively and with a keen awareness of its effectiveness and thus makes the poetic text pulsate with movement and vitality which enables him to master the poetic connotations. The state of dynamism and vitality and the overlap of poetry with narration are the poet’s means to create an integrated and coherent poetic ground that contributes to the success of communication and the process of reception.