Fugitive/Refuge

by Philip Metres

Dynamically pairing traditional and experimental forms, Philip Metres traces ancient and modern migrations in an investigation of the ever-shifting idea of home. In Fugitive/Refuge , Philip Metres follows the journey of his refugee ancestors—from Lebanon to Mexico to the United States—in a vivid exploration of what it means to long for home. A book-length qasida, the collection draws on both ancient traditions and innovative forms—odes and arabics, sonnets and cut-ups, prayers and documentary voicings, heroic couplets and homophonic translations—in order to confront the perils of our forced migration, climate change, and toxic nationalism.  Fugitive/Refuge pronounces the urge both to remember the past and to forge new poetic forms and ways of being in language. In one section, Metres meditates on the Arabic greeting—ahlan wa sahlan—and asks how older forms of welcome might offer generous and embodied ways of responding to the challenges of mass migration and digital alienation in postmodern societies. In another, he dialogues with Dante to inform new ways of understanding ancestral and modern migrations and the injustices that have burdened them. Ultimately, Metres uses movement to create a new place—one to home and dream in—for all those who seek shelter.

Genres: Poetry

144 pages, Paperback

Published April 9, 2024

Reviews

[Jocelyn Chin · Rating 4 out of 5]

“complete me repeatedly repeat you completely” — what a beautiful sentiment in a piece about ancestors

this book… now THIS is poetry. loved the diversity of structure and form, the depth of content, and the artistry of it all… particularly the art of sharing a family history (even family trees and photographs) and connecting these personal archives with a wider, even global audience on a personal and poetic level. might be my favorite one of his collections yet. phil metres is a wordsmith! (and father to one of my best friends hehe).

some interesting interview-turned poems with from ex-convicts / people who experienced homelessness. lots of stories of intergenerational migration from lebanon to mexico to the US. lots of stories of human movement. some poems about physical pain. some poems about night. a bit of arabic scattered throughout it all, and the poet’s clear interests in ancient literature and wisdoms. i looked forward to flipping through a few pages each night before bed throughout this past month.

[Sandra Del Rio]

like a bowl of onyx filled with cracks flickers of future

On temporality and memory and mapping our histories from now to then, backwards, on rhyming family histories of migration to others’ experiences of migration. I love all the work Metres is doing with his poetics over and over again.

[Cora · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’d give this book 6 stars if I could. What a wonderful collection of poems about longing for home, a family history of migration, and the importance of refuge.

[Donald Quist · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent.

[emma ☆ · Rating 2 out of 5]

3/10

- I like the idea of this, but the poems were lowkey not good.

[B.A. Sise · Rating 5 out of 5]

2 April 2024

I suspect that most of the conversations around this book will focus on the bizarre coincidence of another being released simultaneously with an identical cover, but there's a mistake in focusing on the ephemeral. An excellent book of poetry, as much a travelogue- across continents, across time- as a book of poems.

[Patricia N. McLaughlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this collection, the poet maps out his heritage by charting the migration patterns of his refugee ancestors—from Lebanon to Mexico to the United States—and the cartographies of loss and grief of those forcibly displaced by warfare, xenophobia, toxic nationalism, climate change, and cultures of violence. What more is there to lose when so much is taken away?


Pimp my pride. I promise
I’m noninvasive.
In the middle of light,

I took on the night side.
Ask me what I do,
I’ll say: unoccupied.

I’ll set my nation’s
whole body on fire,
simplify the fractions

of political rhyme.
I’ll skein this skin
to the highest of high wires,

refuse to become
a man of my time.
—from “Curriculum Vitae,” p. 39


O crucible of continents shifting table of contents
—from “Fractured (Like Chandeliers,” p. 101


A toast to the migrants

the authors of movement
who write with their feet
—from “Raise Your Glass,” p. 102-103


Favorite Poems:
“2. A Chronology of Roads”
“3. At the Arab American Wedding”
“man•i•fest (i)”
man•i•fest (ii)”
“The Arab Crosses into Los Estados Unidos”
“Fugitive”
“Curriculum Vitae”
“Homeland”
“The Trees in My Chest”
“Ass”
“The Republic of Pain”
“‘Why are there stars?’”
“Solstice Prayer”
“Tweets to Iskander from the Capital, One Hundred Years after His Death”
“The Beggars of Beirut”
“Map the Not Answer”
“Fractured (Like Chandeliers)”
“Raise Your Glass”
“Learning the Ancestors’ Tongues”

[Courtney LeBlanc · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of poetry about family, immigration, identity, survival, climate change, and violence.

from Curriculum Vitae: "Ask me what I do, / I'll say: unoccupied. // I'll set my nation's / whole body on fire, / simplify the fractions // of political rhyme."

from Song for Refugees: "Be gift for famished wails and wakes / to lacks and flares and tented stakes, / the lonely outer sounds of sleeves / eating wind and drowning faces."

from The Refugee Considers the Faucet: "We have walked so long / Our home has narrowed / To the width of our shoes // And what we can carry."

[Bertha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Curriculum Vitae:

“Ask me what I do,
I'll say: unoccupied.
I'll set my nation's
whole body on fire,
simplify the fractions
of political rhyme."

Plague Psalm 90:

“Loss, you have been our regent,
Refusing the refugees
you sent.
Truly we're boxed in an annex
Of the mansion
of your text.
You turn hummingbirds to dirt And feed humans
to earth.
By your annotation
we're smashed,
Filled with the alphabet of wrath
As the annals of our days
Wash away”

[Shawn Aebi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Magnetic and informative, these poems weave together the ancestral map of the author - from Lebanon through Mexico to the United States. Many pieces speak to the mind of the traveler in motion. Others speak to the difficulties in facing new lands and oppression.

[Lisa Stice · Rating 5 out of 5]

interacts with the past to better approach the future