Maryam Imogen Ghouth

Poetry and Conscious Conversations

Poetry

"Poetry is the deification of reality." Edith Sitwell, Young Poets Lecture

I write poems and prose, and make poetry films. My latest work focuses on written poetry, deriving metaphors from nature, science, and the inanimate to help me reconcile some of life’s intimate complexities, including selfhood, the coincidence of opposites, and, in the words of Maria Popova, "the incomprehensible miracle of being alive." My first chapbook is forthcoming, so stay tuned. 

​

My poetry films, on the other hand, are more abstract and analytical, and are produced in both Arabic and English. I combine the tenets of psychology with the big questions of philosophy to shed light on some of the uncomfortable corners of the mind, unpack social narratives, and give voice to the raw emotions that undulate the human experience. I seldom seek resolution in my films, but expression. Check out A Different Kind of Love, which features two talented contemporary dancers or my "Journey of Becoming" series, which was showcased in Dubai’s arthouse cinema, Akil, in celebration of female artists.

Under my recent initiative #mcollabs, I invite artists, musicians, and cinematographers to fuse their art with my poems. Together, we create immersive audio tracks, animated poetry, poetry films, and experiential art to produce a multi-sensory experience and journey inwards.

You can watch my most recent collaboration with film director Alla Dulh, for whom I wrote and narrated the poem in her short film "Under the Sun," which is premiering worldwide. You can also see "Envy," which was a collaboration between various artists and I, inspired by Nietzsche's book "The Genealogy of Morality." 

Click here to commission or collaborate

Conscious Conversations

“You want truffles? You gotta get in the dirt with the pigs.” Holden Ford, Mindhunter Series 

Oftentimes, our struggles are worsened by our inability to meet our reality on its own terms. In light of this, I hold space for one-on-one conversations with individuals seeking to learn what they feel and want and what they do in response to those feelings and wants. 

My approach is descriptive rather than prescriptive, as the goal of our discussions is not to heal wounds or devise solutions; it is to become more aware of our interior worlds and to find the language to describe them, no matter our findings. What you do with these discoveries is really up to you.

Engaging in an honest dialogue that focuses on what "is" rather than what "should be" unmoors us from the harbour of denial and frees us to discover a larger, more nuanced sense of being, away from the stagnation that ensues from constantly trying to fix, control, or avoid. Because I am not here to correct or advise, we get to explore aspects of ourselves that have been hidden from the light and figure out how to describe them in words without getting caught up in the rightness or wrongness of what we feel.

It is a liberating exchange that not only revitalises our sense of integrity but also sieves our priorities by directing our attention to the immensity of what is available to us, in spite of our limitations, or perhaps precisely because of them. 

The insights gained from these conversations often find their way into my poems, revealing to me the inner workings of my own mind as it tries to make sense of this shared existence we call life. 

​

Click here to schedule a conversation

Contact