Rakhshan Rizwan now lives in the US but documents her time in Germany and the Netherlands in this book of poems that pack a powerful punch. The poems are in blank verse and interesting layouts, sometimes with gaps, as in the quotation above, sometimes with really long lines, printed sideways on a double spread in the book.

Like “Bite”, a lot of the poems draw on actual or imagined-but-realistic situations the poet finds herself in – “A Man is speaking Urdu on the train and everyone is turning to look at him” falls into this category, where a man who has been speaking Urdu moves into broken English and a trainful of Dutch people relaxes, or “Caucasity”, where at a conference, she is one of the only people of colour in the room but gives support to a woman presenter who stands out in the same way.

Other poems are more abstract or fanciful. I loved, although its ending is devastating, “Medusa Ghosted” where the protagonist grows a head of Medusa-like snakes for hair, tends and grooms them, keeps them when her husband isn’t keen.

I particularly liked, also, the poems that took Rizwan away from the Netherlands, to other parts of Europe. In “Paris Proper”, she and a friend visit the same city but have two very different views of it:

She saw warm crepes with jam,

and cold newlyweds with beautiful shoulders,

striking brave poses against mighty gusts of wind

at the Tour De Eiffel.

I saw Pakistanis, North Africans,

in frayed jackets, dirty mufflers,

selling plastic tat, keychains,

reproductions of the tower for a euro,

hawking yesterday’s Le Monde,

their bodies dancing a different tango

from the dancers by the Seine.

(from “Paris Proper”, p. 54)

and in “Seville”, she observes the interlayering of the European and Arabic in the buildings and the relevance to those who don’t feel quite at home in either one place or the other.

Moving and wry, sometimes a poem is the best way to show an experience, and that really comes across here. I will defintely look for more by this writer.

Line drawings by Reena Makwana, who also drew the cover image, add a lovely extra dimension to the book.

At the meetup: if not taken, it will go on the shelves in the coffee shop.

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LyzzyBee encouraged me to take this so I did. Thanks for bringing it!