A new Tunisian poetic genre is born. What is a "Kasserine"? Structure: A Kasserine is a new poetic genre created on July 9, 2017. In it all is condensed in two lines with a sum total of thirteen or fourteen syllables. Its first line cannot exceed seven of them. The title of a Kasserine must be an integral part of the poem in terms of interpretation. The number of its syllables must not exceed seven. Subject matter: In a Kasserine nature and imagination perform the same poetic activity. Nature ceases to be a mere mirror reflecting the feelings of the poet, the political or social situation, etc., and becomes symbolic in the very moment it renounces representation as a one-to-one correspondence . Nature in a Kasserine has no existence prior to the pricking into action of the imagination by the self of the poet. For, even though it is groundless (it does not belong to the self), the imagination has no intentionality of its own; this is why it needs the intentionality of the subject in order to be operative. Samples of a Kasserine
Ruby Sun Among amethyst silk clouds She flirts with the sapphire sea (c) Paula Swenson, USA
Tunisia A fair island of light in my imagination (c) Jeffard Ster, USA
Red Giant A star inside her implodes Heavens of chaos unfold (c) Stefan David Sederscog, Sweden
Note: Friends and acquaintances are cordially invited to start writing sublime (marked by repression of meaning) Kasserines. (c)Lazhar Bouazzi, 9 July, 2017.