Sand and Foam

By Kahlil Gibran

A collection of inspirational aphorisms, parables, and poems by the acclaimed author of The Prophet.

Published in 1926, Sand and Foam showcases Kahlil Gibran’s ability to capture complex ideas in just a line or two. As he touches on themes like faith, humanity, youth, knowledge, greed, and apathy, his words are sure to motivate and inspire readers in search of guidance in their daily lives.

Gibran was a Lebanese American writer, poet, visual artist, and philosopher. His work The Prophet has been translated into over one hundred languages and has not been out of print since it was originally published in 1923. Fans of Gibran’s work include David Bowie, Johnny Cash, John Lennon, and Elvis Presley.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Media
• Release date: Jan 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781504068215

Kahlil Gibran

Poet, philosopher, and artist, Kahlil Gibran (1883 - 1931) was born in Lebanon. The millions of Arabic-speaking peoples familiar with his writings in that language consider him the genius of his age and he was a man whose fame and influence spread far beyond the country of his birth. His poetry has been translated into more than twenty languages and his drawings and paintings have been exhibited in the great capitals of the world and compared by Auguste Rodin to the work of William Blake.

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Publisher’s Note

Long before they were ever written down, poems were organized in lines. Since the invention of the printing press, readers have become increasingly conscious of looking at poems, rather than hearing them, but the function of the poetic line remains primarily sonic. Whether a poem is written in meter or in free verse, the lines introduce some kind of pattern into the ongoing syntax of the poem’s sentences; the lines make us experience those sentences differently. Reading a prose poem, we feel the strategic absence of line.

But precisely because we’ve become so used to looking at poems, the function of line can be hard to describe. As James Longenbach writes in The Art of the Poetic Line, Line has no identity except in relation to other elements in the poem, especially the syntax of the poem’s sentences. It is not an abstract concept, and its qualities cannot be described generally or schematically. It cannot be associated reliably with the way we speak or breathe. Nor can its function be understood merely from its visual appearance on the page. Printed books altered our relationship to poetry by allowing us to see the lines more readily. What new challenges do electronic reading devices pose?

In a printed book, the width of the page and the size of the type are fixed. Usually, because the page is wide enough and the type small enough, a line of poetry fits comfortably on the page: What you see is what you’re supposed to hear as a unit of sound. Sometimes, however, a long line may exceed the width of the page; the line continues, indented just below the beginning of the line. Readers of printed books have become accustomed to this convention, even if it may on some occasions seem ambiguous—particularly when some of the lines of a poem are already indented from the left-hand margin of the page.

But unlike a printed book, which is stable, an ebook is a shape-shifter. Electronic type may be reflowed across a galaxy of applications and interfaces, across a variety of screens, from phone to tablet to computer. And because the reader of an ebook is empowered to change the size of the type, a poem’s

Reviews for Sand and Foam

[GABRELA HAREWOOD · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Chock full of woke Instagram captions, much like the Bible’s Proverbs

[michael5rimmer · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Gibran's ability to encapsulate a profound concept in two or three lines is incredible.

There's so much to think about on every page of this small book that it will require multiple readings to really appreciate what he's saying. That's not to say that he's obscure, because he's certainly not, he's mostly cuttingly precise and clear. It's that his message is, like most great teachers, a challenging one that for most of us (certainly me) would take a massive change of character and life-style to realise. Sadly, I'm far to lazy to make the changes, but maybe some of it will stick and I will be a little bit the better for it.

I bought another two of his books at the same time as this one and will read them soon: I want to learn more.

[benkline · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

2.5

Aphorisms might be a bit much to say for this, more or less like platitudes and comments wrapped in poetic speech/writing, to seem more clever than they are.

Some good one-liners, but afterwards, mostly completely forgettable.

50 cent buy from the Hummelstown Library book sale.