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maltatoday | SUNDAY • 19 JANUARY 2020 4 THIS WEEK LITERATURE As he gets ready to release his third poetry collection, Xehir Fis-Skiet, Omar Seguna speaks to TEODOR RELJIC about his politically- charged work, which aims to highlight social injustices and give voice to the marginalised among us Breaking the silence Teodor Reljic Xehir Fis-Skiet is your third po- etry collection. What can you tell us about your previous pub- lications? My first poetry collection was Mal-Ħoss Qawwi tar-Ragħad, which was published in 2001. It came with a critical introduction by Guze' Chetcuti. Subsequently, I published 24, Triq Ħad-Dwieli in 2011, with an introduction by Mario Azzopardi. This book came with an interactive DVD, making it one of the first locally produced poetry collection to come with an Adobe Flash version. Some of my writings also appeared in several anthologies including 'Arkadja', 'Il silenzio della montagna e le voci del mare', 'Premi Letterari Citta' Di Pontinia XIII Edizione', 'Kritika Prattika', 'Minn Fomm il-Kittieb', 'Raddiena ta' Lwien' and in several newspapers. There is a very clear political thrust to the work in question: would you say that this is the primary reason why you write? Which are some of the most egregious social wrongs you hope to highlight with your work? I believe that authors must be political, in the sense that they should seek to transform the world around them. My poetry is not that of protest, in the tradi- tional sense of being strongly fo- cused on campaigning for justice and human rights. Having said that, one can certainly find ex- amples of anti-war poetry among my work, such as 'Sirja 2013', which conveys a message of peace through its haiku format. In 'Twiebet fuq il-baħar' (Cof- fins in the sea) I challenged the present-day growth of anti-im- migration sentiment. Silence and passivity scare me, as I express in 'Is-Skiet' (Silence). So yes, I campaign for social change through my work, as in 'Kuntrast' (Contrast) where the greedy lives of the rich are juxta- posed against the more meaning- ful lives of the poor. Meanwhile, the poem 'd e m m' (blood) is a concrete poem, written in red and evoking blood splatters. However, my poetry is also about invisible suffering, and the human tendency to be cruel to each other. I want to lend a voice to those who are suffering in si- lence, and I am merciless in the face of injustice. 'Sena Maqful' (Detained for a Year), for exam- ple, is inspired by a local case of a man who was given a prison sentence despite being innocent.