Lost Praises

Compliments affect us deeply, and kind words leave a beautiful mark that may stay with us for a lifetime. What does praise do to us? And how does it affect others when you praise them? Does the universe change when we praise things, homes, years, and our old streets? Raed Al-Eid doesn‘t begin his book with an introduction, but with a beginning, and he doesn‘t end with a conclusion, but with a new fascination. He walks you along the edges of things not to introduce them to you, but to teach you how to see them for the first time. In his pages, praise doesn‘t reside in palaces of words, but wanders through alleyways, lingers at the margins of the painting, drinks from the cup of contemplation, and mends the gaps of forgetfulness. Here in the book "Lost Praises," the praises are hesitant, lost, contemplative, and perhaps belated… but they are sincere and know how to choose their destination. The praises in this book are not ready-made poems or certificates of recommendation; they are not about any one person, but about everything—reflections on forgotten beauty and on the small details that are not usually praised, but which deserve it. Beginnings without introductions, ceilings without walls, frames that create paintings of whiteness, play that is not for amusement, views from above, almond trees that discover the fragility of the shell and the solidity of the interior, no places more than places, and margins where meanings lie that the text did not make room for.