Myra Garces-Bacsal here.

Poetry Friday consists of wonderful people (teachers, librarians, authors, poets, book lovers) from the blogosphere who are committed to sharing life-nourishing poems every Friday. It is hosted voluntarily by various people every week. As explained by Mary Lee Hahn here, it serves as “a gathering of links to posts featuring original or shared poems, or reviews of poetry books. A carnival of poetry posts. Here is an explanation that Rene LaTulippe shared on her blog, No Water River, and here is an article Susan Thomsen wrote for the Poetry Foundation.” It has been a long while since I’ve joined this community and I do miss it dearly. I hope to be more present this year, life circumstances permitting.

A special thanks and shout-out to Rose at Imagine the Possibilities for hosting this week.

We Call To The Eye & The Night: Love Poems By Writers Of Arab Heritage

Edited and with an Introduction by: Hala Alyan & Zeina Hashem Beck Published by: Persea (2023) ISBN: 9780892555673 (ISBN10: 089255567X). Bought a copy of the book.

I did not know of the existence of this poetry anthology until this year’s Emirates Airline Festival of Literature where it was put on display along with other delectable titles by Magrudy’s, the festival’s bookstore partner. Hala Alyan, Palestinian American poet and novelist, a co-editor of this fantastic collection, was one of the featured guests of the festival. Hence, practically all of her books are available for purchase throughout the duration of the event. As soon as I saw the title, I knew I had to feature it for this month’s guest curation.

The entire collection has been divided into six sections or themes in total. Allow me to quote directly from the Editors’ Introduction where they described what each theme stands for:

Each section takes its title from a poem within it, suggesting subtle and playful associations. “details stolen from the heavens” blends the earthly and the celestial; “her grief into bread, her joy into butter” melds loss and comfort; “to where my mother pulled the city lights to dance” conjures place and ancestries; “i found you at the intersection” revels in the fleeting and borderless; “something soft against something body” reimagines pasts and futures; and “and i, your riverbank” overflows with longing. These titles are merely propositions, though. You can read this anthology in order or go back and forth, choosing poems intuitively, which is the way of love in its widest sense.

The Arab world is known for its love of poetry, and their unparalleled skill when it comes to verse-weaving. This collection is a testament to this luminous spirit that calls to the eye and the night in longing and in joy, in grief and in illicit pleasures. Each poem in this book – which I read by the way during Valentine week – moved me deeply, held me captive, and allowed me to bear witness to pain and beauty, loss, and the grace it brings. There is a yearning here that transcends the individual, moving into collective exiles, displacements, disappearances; the ache a gaping hole that swallows countries whole.

See for example, this poem Like Lebanon by Farah Chamma, Palestinian poet and performer, who currently lives and works in the UAE, and is the curator of creative writing and performing arts programs at the House of Wisdom in Sharjah (see our #UAEReads post on the House of Wisdom here and here). I took a photo of the poem and edited it using an app:

The poems sing, the lines dance, the verses glitter like the sand dunes in summer. This is such a marvel and a treat for me, because apart from Naomi Shihab Nye, I am not familiar with any of the poets here, which only goes to show that there is still so much literary treasure out there waiting to be discovered.

One such treasure is Hala Nasr, an Egyptian feminist born and raised in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Her poem “love like oceans” is the quintessential love poem that I just know I have to share with you here. Similar to the above, I took a photo of the page from my book and edited it using an app:

Among the contributors of this anthology, around nine have lived in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, or Sharjah at a certain point in their lives. One of whom is Zeina Hashem Beck (co-editor of Hala Alyan), a Lebanese poet who has just recently moved to California with her family “after a lifetime in Lebanon and a decade in Dubai” according to her biography found at the end of the book.

I am sharing a fragment from her poem, “Ode To My Husband, Who Brings The Music” for Poetry Friday with you all as a sampler. Enjoy!

Last week, you almost dialed my old phone number,

& I wondered whether it would ring

in my childhood house, & whether I’d rush to answer.

Only you know & remember the house I drew

over & over again in all my school books:

house with roof tiles, with chimney,

with lake & swan. Simple, geometric house

I never colored in. But look how resilient

the future is, how I underestimated

the importance of big windows. Of the calm sea

of you. I don’t know at what age we learn to be afraid

of happiness. Our first slow dance was in a family club

called Union, in a town too small. We had no flow,

still have none. Unless you consider this –

me in bed, not ready for the morning yet,

& you downstairs, bringing the music.

---

---

---

#UAEReads strives to be reflective of the diverse demographic population that makes up the country of the United Arab Emirates (see Global Media Insight source of demographics as of 2024). Hence, we will be featuring literature coming from the major nationalities comprising the entire country: Emiratis, Pakistanis, Indians, Filipinos, Egyptians – and other nationalities who have made the UAE their home.

About the Guest Editor/Curator for March 2024 [#UAEReads]:

Myra Garces-Bacsal has served as a teacher educator for 15 years and has led several research projects on reading and social emotional learning, diverse picturebooks and teacher practices, psychology of high creatives and exceptional people, culturally responsive and inclusive education. She is a quintessential lover and creator of booklists (see her Social and Emotional Learning bookshelf here and other publications below). Myra serves as the Assistant Dean for Research and Graduate Studies with the College of Education, UAE University. She is a self-proclaimed nerd who lives and breathes books and enjoys organizing events and festivals where fellow nerds converge and attempt to joyfully change the world.

Publications on booklists:

Garces-Bacsal, R. M., Alhosani, N. M., Elhoweris, H., Tupas, R. (2023). A diverse social and emotional learning booklist for gifted learners and advanced readers. Roeper Review, 45(1), 25-36. https://doi.org/10.1080/02783193.2022.2145397

Garces-Bacsal, R. M., Alhosani, N. M., Elhoweris, H., Al Ghufli, H. T., AlOwais, N. M., Baja, E. S., & Tupas, R. (2022). Using diverse picturebooks for inclusive practices and transformative pedagogies. In M. Efstratopoulou (Ed.), Rethinking Inclusion and Transformation in Special Education (pp. 72-92). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-6684-4680-5.ch005

Garces-Bacsal, R. M. (2021). Of grit and gumption, sass and verve: What gifted students can learn from multicultural picture book biographies. In S. R. Smith’s Handbook of giftedness and talent development in Australasian Pacific (pp. 431-453). Singapore: Springer International Handbooks of Education. https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-981-13-3041-4_18

Garces-Bacsal, R. M. (2020). Diverse books for diverse children: Building an early childhood diverse booklist for social and emotional learning. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 22(1), 66-95. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798420901856