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Bullets & Orchids
Stunning text exquisitely tuned to the traumas/torments/delicate presences of our (utterly mysterious but knowable, in smaller ways) times. In 58 spare, but enormous segments of poetry, Rewa Zeinati transports and elevates her readers into and beyond the confounding. It is rare to read text that feels like such a full breath. Naomi Shihab Nye
"This is not your usual quiet, well mannered, little poetry book. In fact, it may not be a poetry book. It is most probably a journey: one where you can follow the workings of an intelligent mind on its surreal path through past and present, family and current day Middle East. This is not a book that will spoon-feed you. There is a refusal to give you words that you don’t need. There are no explanations. You are expected to be grown up. But OMG, the images. 'I saw bullets though. Many were shaped like tongues.' You need to be on board this trip. Me? I’m going round again. This woman is the real deal." --Frank Dullaghan
"As the Arab street meets the determination of country to remain unchanged or even to re-invent the past, Rewa Zeinati keeps asking 'where will it go from here?' In this amazing poetry sequence, nothing familiar remains, unless it be the fact that all aspects of our lives intersect: marriage, divorce, devotion to tradition, passion for change. The voice pushing out the declarations in this poetry turns to a syntax of interruption, one that remakes the Arab world in the speaker’s own image: fresh, honest, questioning, and challenging. Above all, this fervent poetry represents the latest flowering of the Middle East, surprising yet unstoppable, betokening individual life." --Steven M. Schreiner
"A raw and gripping new voice." --Nathalie Handal
"This is not your usual quiet, well mannered, little poetry book. In fact, it may not be a poetry book. It is most probably a journey: one where you can follow the workings of an intelligent mind on its surreal path through past and present, family and current day Middle East. This is not a book that will spoon-feed you. There is a refusal to give you words that you don’t need. There are no explanations. You are expected to be grown up. But OMG, the images. 'I saw bullets though. Many were shaped like tongues.' You need to be on board this trip. Me? I’m going round again. This woman is the real deal." --Frank Dullaghan
"As the Arab street meets the determination of country to remain unchanged or even to re-invent the past, Rewa Zeinati keeps asking 'where will it go from here?' In this amazing poetry sequence, nothing familiar remains, unless it be the fact that all aspects of our lives intersect: marriage, divorce, devotion to tradition, passion for change. The voice pushing out the declarations in this poetry turns to a syntax of interruption, one that remakes the Arab world in the speaker’s own image: fresh, honest, questioning, and challenging. Above all, this fervent poetry represents the latest flowering of the Middle East, surprising yet unstoppable, betokening individual life." --Steven M. Schreiner
"A raw and gripping new voice." --Nathalie Handal
- GenresPoetry
24 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2013
8 people want to read
About the author
Rewa Zeinati
4 books16 followersDubai-based, Lebanese-American poet and writer, Rewa Zeinati, is the founding editor of Sukoon Magazine (www.sukoonmag.com), an Arab-themed, English language, online literary journal.
Her poetry chapbook, Bullets & Orchids, is published by Corrupt Press (2013). http://corruptpress.net/?q=node/58
Her creative nonfiction book entitled, Nietzsche’s Camel Must Die: An Invitation to Say 'No', is published by xanadu* (2013).
Several of her poems, essays, interviews and translations have been published in literary journals and anthologies including, Natural Bridge Journal; Quiddity; Mizna; Al Jadid; The Atrium: A Journal of Academic Voices; The Santa Clara Review; Blood Lotus Journal; Cactus Heart Press; The Bicycle Review; Sampsonia Way Magazine; the anthology, Common Boundary: Stories of Immigration (Editions Bibiotekos, 2010); the anthology, Nowhere Near a Damn Rainbow: Unsanctioned Writing from the Middle East (xanadu*, 2012); the anthology, The UK Poetry Library’s Poets of 2012 (UK Poetry Library, 2012); as well as the online forums, The UK Poetry Library; Every Day Poets; and The English PEN Online World Atlas.
Her poetry chapbook, Bullets & Orchids, is published by Corrupt Press (2013). http://corruptpress.net/?q=node/58
Her creative nonfiction book entitled, Nietzsche’s Camel Must Die: An Invitation to Say 'No', is published by xanadu* (2013).
Several of her poems, essays, interviews and translations have been published in literary journals and anthologies including, Natural Bridge Journal; Quiddity; Mizna; Al Jadid; The Atrium: A Journal of Academic Voices; The Santa Clara Review; Blood Lotus Journal; Cactus Heart Press; The Bicycle Review; Sampsonia Way Magazine; the anthology, Common Boundary: Stories of Immigration (Editions Bibiotekos, 2010); the anthology, Nowhere Near a Damn Rainbow: Unsanctioned Writing from the Middle East (xanadu*, 2012); the anthology, The UK Poetry Library’s Poets of 2012 (UK Poetry Library, 2012); as well as the online forums, The UK Poetry Library; Every Day Poets; and The English PEN Online World Atlas.
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