Colours of life

Gulf Weekly

10-04-2025

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WORDSMITHS in Bahrain and beyond will gather for the kingdom's much-awaited annual poetry festival tomorrow, staged by the Bahrain Writers' Circle, featuring diverse themes like nature, childhood memories, love and loss and more.
Colours of Life will showcase 25 poets of various nationalities, including Canadian, Indian, British, Irish and Mauritian talents. They will present their creative interpretations of 'colours' across the spectrum.
While the event will be hosted on The Terrace at the British Club in Um Al Hassam, former Bahrain residents who continue to be members of the group will join it from various parts of the world, including the UK, Canada and Dubai.
The festival is being organised by The Second Circle, a sister group of BWC, founded by former resident and Irish poet David Hollywood.
David launched the poetry festival's inaugural edition at Bahrain Fort in 2012.
'The Second Circle troupe of poets was created in order to meet on a monthly basis to encourage and inspire each member to new, and then higher levels of poetic creation,' David, who left Bahrain in 2016 but is an active member of the BWC, told GulfWeekly.
'As the formula proved successful, it was determined to provide an opportunity for those poets to publicly showcase their works through a festival of celebration. To our surprise and delight, it was such a success upon its launch, that it went on to become an annual event,' the author, who will participate this year, added, while also revealing his ambitious hopes for Colours of Life to become an international festival someday.
BWC director Saira Ranj hopes to present her piece, which conjures an image of 'blood red' hues. In it, she reminisces her life journey. She notes that the festival brings together her two passions – the written word and colours. The artist and marketing manager, who has her own art studio in Bahrain Financial Harbour, has been living in the kingdom for the last eight years.
'Colours possess the remarkable ability to evoke feelings, convey moods, and transport us to different realms of imagination. Combine that with poetry and you get emotional alchemy,' the Indian expatriate from Seef said.
Darius Abbasi, a British national of Iranian origin, who has been a BWC member for the last seven years and is part of the team steering the group, will be flying down to the kingdom from Dubai specifically for the event. He is set to present a poem about hope and gratitude, which according to him is best symbolised by 'white'.
'The inspiration came to me when I was visiting my dad. We spoke about his charity projects and the ensuing challenges, sitting under the sun with a garden in front of us,' the senior digital engagement director, who lived in Bahrain for four years, said.
An excerpt from the former Seef resident's work reads:
'My father sitting by my side
Each line on his face telling a story
His kind and soothing words, full of hope'
Indian expatriate and educator Raji Murali, who also joined the group seven years ago, has chosen the colour green to bring alive her experience in the midst of nature.
'I was fascinated to know how poets associate their experiences and emotions in words linking them with a colour, which spurred me on to participate in the festival. I wanted to share my first trip to Coorg, a beautiful hill station in southern India. After a long road trip from Bangalore, we reached Abbey Falls and had to trek half a mile into the forest at sunset to reach this place. My poem tries to recreate this experience,' project director at Dr APJ Abdul Kalam International Foundation, who manages their overseas education initiatives, said.
An excerpt from the Hoora resident's poem reads,
'The Golden sunset filled the thick forest and our pleasant journey unfolds.
Fragrances of blooming flowers filled the air,
The moment when our senses were stolen away,'
The event is open to all on a first-come-first-served basis and will run from 7pm to 8.30pm.