Horizon Information Portal

e-branch

Home

My Account/Renew Loans

Find Magazine Articles & more

Ruba iyat for the time of apricots / a poem by Basma Kavanagh.

by Kavanagh, Basma.

Frontenac House Poetry, 2018.

Canadian poetry -- Women authors.

Canadian poetry -- 21st century.

9781927823811 (lib. bdg.)

Text in English; includes some text in Arabic.

"This book length poem comprises three major interwoven threads: "Ahli", an auto/biographical thread about my Lebanese heritage; "Astura", a grim tale linking climate change and the oppression of women, and "Ana", a reflection on identity, language, and writing. To tell a story of my mother, her sisters, and their mother; a story of traditions, gesture, ritual, transformation, and self, is to persist against the erasure of the nuanced and tenacious feminine histories that co-exist with our troubled present and its bland stereotypes. Like a seed, a family story houses its ancestors, and the diversity--genetic and experiential--that equips us to thrive in a multitude of possible futures. Written in quatrains, called "ruba iyat" in Arabic, from the word for "four", each stanza of this poem is self-contained, yet converses with adjacent stanzas to build a narrative. The repetition of phrases across stanzas, and the studding of the text with Arabic words, combine to create a layered, incantatory quality evoking the complexity of Arabic oral poetry."--From publisher.

Canadian poetry.

Horizon Information Portal 3.24_8902M

© 2001-2013 SirsiDynix All rights reserved.

Horizon Information Portal