“Leħen il-Malti”
is a yearly publication by Għaqda tal-Malti – Università. This literary society and
its annual journal were founded in 1931 by Rużar
Briffa and Ġużé Bonnici, two medical undergrads with a love for the Maltese language
who would eventually become leading figures in the history of Maltese
literature. Leħen il-Malti is
still going strong, publishing prose, poetry and academic articles by young
and/or emerging writers, alongside pieces by more established authors.
Alas, last week I was informed that neither of the two poems I submitted for this year’s edition was accepted for publication. Rejection naturally brings disappointment, but I’m still thankful that pieces of mine were included in the past three years, and happy to learn that works by authors I admire (some of whom are also friends) will be featured in the forthcoming edition.
In my view, there’s little point to writing if it is not shared, so here’s Għera (“Nakedness”), one of the two poems, finding a home on this blog. The illustration I chose is a painting by English artist Joshua Goodfellow. It’s called “Room” and is taken from the painter’s series “The Uncanny”. I think it fits the mood of the poem - a bit weird, surreal but also strangely hopeful.
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