Ramblings #23
A different kind of morning pages
Today marks the first day of two independent yet related celebrations of literature for me. The first is the aforementioned Sealey Challenge month, where one is challenged to read 31 books of poetry in August. The second is Women in Translation month, which is near and dear to my heart, as so many incredible women translators are doing such incredible work lately.
For the Sealey Challenge, today I finished a book titled Archipelago by Laila Malik out of Book*hug press.
Malik’s lyric is anything but sparse, and yet the images she evokes have a barrenness to them. Not barren as in without substance, without meaning, but barren as in to evoke a type of destruction. I think of the following lines from above specifically:
the last time I was home
(your home, i have no home,
even a sandbar is better than nothing,
beware the person without a country—
she has no country to lose)
In five lines, Malik traverses so much emotional and physical distance. It’s impressive from a technical level, but also I think about the poetry being channeled here.
What is it about this world of ours that there is poetry that can and must be found in the jettison, in dispersal?
Here’s a prompt from Malik as part of a series from her press:
Prompt: Extrapolate a poem out of a word or a sentence recently (or in the past) used by someone you loved or loathed, or even a stranger (your barista, your colleagues, the person next to you on the bus, the news anchor) that caught and hung strangely in your mind.
May your days start with this poetry tomorrow.
Cherishing, always.