Straggling Through Fire  An Anthology of Proemistry
Edition: First
Series: First
Publisher: MISAAL PUBLISHERS
Published: 2021
Place of publication: Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 119
ISBN-13: 9789695816219
Copyright date: March, 2021
First sentence: Yes, you are right. It is not poetry; it was not conceived as poetry; it is proemistry: blend of poetry and prose, media and history and, actually, whatever you can put into it, whatever you need to put into it. Proemistry is of the margin, for the margin, by the margin. Therefore, margin is a permanent presence on the pages of the p-book – the process book of process proemistry. And it is ‘our’ book, not ‘my’ book, a collaborative project.
Description: Preface 1


Yes, you are right. It is not poetry; it was not conceived as poetry; it is proemistry: blend of poetry and prose, media and history and, actually, whatever you can put into it, whatever you need to put into it. Proemistry is of the margin, for the margin, by the margin. Therefore, margin is a permanent presence on the pages of the p-book – the process book of process proemistry. And it is ‘our’ book, not ‘my’ book, a collaborative project. The margin has literal as well as metaphoric significance: metaphorically it stands on the pages as a constant reminder to the readers that it is their proemistry and they have got here space for them, to add to it, to expand it, to enrich it with their laughter and sobs, grimaces and smiles, cries and slogans; yes, even slogans. When I say that “I have left two leaves at the end …” for this purpose, I mean it literally as well as metaphorically. And these two leaves can be two hundred pages, or even two thousand pages. Proemistry is full-blooded expression of the agonies of the weak. It is an ongoing genre: neither a proem nor, therefore, a collection of proemistry can ever be complete. Its margin is meant for expansion and inclusion of the agonies of those who are getting ever new pains day by day, from city to city, from vicinity to vicinity, from generation to generation and from region to region. A proemist, hence, may compose only one collection of proemistry and then he with his collaborators – his people, all those who share his dreams and desires – will keep adding to it and so may his generation. We need small proemists: three, four or five or even twenty proemists for three, four or five decades to keep them fresh in our minds, to cure our communal collective amnesia, to keep the road well lit that leads our past to our future. Then after a century hence around 2120 or so, may be – when English language has grown more natural and easy than it is for us in 2020 – the sterile academic generation – one may be able to collect various parts from books and pieces of proemistry to compile or even recreate a representative weltanschauung of the century, or perhaps, ten mini-weltanschauungs, to let the reader conceive a coherent map of the past leading to future to measure the then present and future against the past. The function of proemistry is to preserve the passions we tend to forget because of being excessively used to such deformative atrocities we have been going through for the last seven decades, i.e. since our inception – with rising momentum of amnesia from decade to decade. Lest we should forget our day to day bleedings and bombings, our proems can help us keep our memories of our wounds and losses intact. It is not to keep our wounds fresh; intact memories of wounds also imply remembrance of those who inflicted the wounds and those who received the wounds and, therefore, a way out to stand against the future wounds, and working out
Notes: Dr. Ghulam Murtaza Aatir's Straggling through Fire is a genuine innovative contribution to the existing Pakistani Anglophone poetry. The researchers will explore it in detail, of course. I want to salute him for giving the following new coinages to Pakistani English:

i- Proemistry: Combination of poetry, prose, media and history. It is a new collaborative experimental genre

ii- Proem: A unit / piece in proemistry

iii- Proemist: Dr. Ghulam Murtaza Aatir himself and all those who will follow this style

iv- Pranza: A stanza in a proem

v- Prine: A Line in a proem

vi- Foend: Blend of Foe
and Friend; a friend working as a foe

vii- Animanism: Animalistic part of human nature; a creative replacement of an infix in animalism

A linguistic and stylistic study of the book will further explore the linguistic ingenuity and experimentation of Dr. Ghulam Murtaza. Of course, it has laid the foundation of a new school of poetry in English, that he has termed as Proemistry. Waiting for new coinages from you, Our dear Dr. Aatir
Table of contents: title: For Straggling through Fire 7; title: Preface 1 13; title: Preface 2 16; title: What is a Proem? 21; title: What Matters in a Jungle 25; title: Between the Earth and the Sky 27; title: Ebola 29; title: Animanism: Bison Hunt by Wolves 30; title: Questions to Malala 32; title: How to Write an Award Winning; title: Piece of Pakistani Fiction 37; title: Assurance 39; title: One Bhutto for Sale 41; title: Confusion 43; title: Exact Geographical Location of My Homeland 46; title: An MCQ Test 48; title: A Proem That I Should Not Write 50; title: To Mr. Ram Chand 52; title: In Debt 54; title: Letter to Election Commission of Pakistan 55; title: Miss Purdah 59; title: Elastic Imagination 60; title: Explanation 61; title: My Dear Indian and My Dear Jew 62; title: I Am … 65; title: One or Two? 71; title: My Hands and Nails 72; title: Blur 74; title: Lions in the Zoo 75; title: A Dialogue between a Crane and a Palm 78; title: Light 79; title: Limitation of Imagination 80; title: An Unpoetic Sonnet 82; title: There is No News 84; title: Alzheimer 86; title: Long Live Your Stony Palace! 88; title: I won’t Let You Die as a News Item! 90; title: Heritage 100; title: To Nameless Graves 102; title: On Deosai 103; title: The Promises 105; title: A Crow’s Question 107; title: A Multiple Riddle for Small Children 109; title: Wait 110; title: Company Matters 111; title: Salle ala Muhammad 112