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In Her Feminine Sign
A brilliant poetic exploration of language and gender, place, and time, seen through the mirror of exile In Her Feminine Sign follows on the heels of Dunya Mikhail's devastating account of Daesh kidnappings and killings of Yazidi women in Iraq, The Beekeeper. It is the first book she has written in both Arabic and English, a process she talks about in her preface, saying "The poet is at home in both texts, yet she remains a stranger." With a subtle simplicity and disquieting humor reminiscent of Wislawa Szymborska and an unadorned lyricism wholly her own, Mikhail shifts between her childhood in Baghdad and her present life in Detroit, between Ground Zero and a mass grave, between a game of chess and a flamingo. At the heart of the book is the symbol of the tied circle, the Arabic suffix taa-marbuta ―a circle with two dots above it that determines a feminine word, or sign. This tied circle transforms into the moon, a stone that binds friendship, birdsong over ruins, three kidnapped women, and a hymn to Nisaba, the goddess of writing. A section of "Iraqi haiku" unfolds like Sumerian symbols carved onto clay tablets, transmuted into the stuff of our ordinary, daily life. In another poem, Mikhail defines the Sumerian word for freedom, Ama-ar-gi , as "what seeps out / from the dead into our dreams."
- GenresPoetryMiddle East
80 pages, Paperback
First published July 30, 2019
4 people are currently reading
325 people want to read
About the author
Dunya Mikhail
20 books131 followersDunya Mikhail is an Iraqi American poet and writer. She is the author of the poetry collections The War Works Hard, shortlisted for the International Griffon Poetry Prize, Diary of a Wave Outside the Sea (winner of the Arab American Book Award), The Iraqi Nights, winner of the Poetry Magazine Translation Award, and In Her Feminine Sign, chosen as one of the ten best poetry books of 2019 by The New York Public Library.
Her nonfiction book The Beekeeper was a finalist for the National Book Award, and her debut novel, The Bird Tattoo, was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction.
Mikhail is a laureate of the UNESCO Sharja Prize for Arab Culture and has received the UN Human Rights Award for Freedom of Writing, as well as fellowships from the United States Artists, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Kresge Foundation.
She currently teaches Arabic and poetry at Oakland University in Michigan.
Her nonfiction book The Beekeeper was a finalist for the National Book Award, and her debut novel, The Bird Tattoo, was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction.
Mikhail is a laureate of the UNESCO Sharja Prize for Arab Culture and has received the UN Human Rights Award for Freedom of Writing, as well as fellowships from the United States Artists, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Kresge Foundation.
She currently teaches Arabic and poetry at Oakland University in Michigan.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
April 13, 2020
If yearning encircles us,
what does it mean?
That a circle has no beginning
and no end?
*
I am sorry
my poem will not save you.
My poem cannot return
all of your losses,
not even some of them,
and those who went far away
my poem won’t know how to bring them back
to their lovers.
I am sorry.
I don’t know why the birds
sing
during their crossings
over our ruins.
Their songs will not save us,
although, in the chilliest times,
they keep us warm,
and when we need to touch the soul
to know it’s not dead
their songs
give us that touch.
*
Oh, little ants,
how you move forward
without looking back.
If I could only borrow your steps
for five minutes.
*
Light falls from her voice
and I try to catch it as the last
light of the day fades ...
But there is no form to touch,
no pain to trace.
*
Back when there was no language
they walked until sunset
carrying red leaves
like words to remember.
*
I don’t feel the rotation of the Earth,
not even when I see
the cities moving backward
through the train’s window,
one by one.
Not even when I return
each time to the same place
where birds pick up the mornings
with their beaks and spread them away
as new circles of light.
Not even when I sleep
and see you alive in my dream
and then wake knowing the dead
didn’t rise yet from their death.
Not even when I find myself
saying the same thing over and over
as if those words were oars
cutting through a river
we cross in turns
with our untold stories
to that same shore, in silence.
what does it mean?
That a circle has no beginning
and no end?
*
I am sorry
my poem will not save you.
My poem cannot return
all of your losses,
not even some of them,
and those who went far away
my poem won’t know how to bring them back
to their lovers.
I am sorry.
I don’t know why the birds
sing
during their crossings
over our ruins.
Their songs will not save us,
although, in the chilliest times,
they keep us warm,
and when we need to touch the soul
to know it’s not dead
their songs
give us that touch.
*
Oh, little ants,
how you move forward
without looking back.
If I could only borrow your steps
for five minutes.
*
Light falls from her voice
and I try to catch it as the last
light of the day fades ...
But there is no form to touch,
no pain to trace.
*
Back when there was no language
they walked until sunset
carrying red leaves
like words to remember.
*
I don’t feel the rotation of the Earth,
not even when I see
the cities moving backward
through the train’s window,
one by one.
Not even when I return
each time to the same place
where birds pick up the mornings
with their beaks and spread them away
as new circles of light.
Not even when I sleep
and see you alive in my dream
and then wake knowing the dead
didn’t rise yet from their death.
Not even when I find myself
saying the same thing over and over
as if those words were oars
cutting through a river
we cross in turns
with our untold stories
to that same shore, in silence.
April 29, 2020
Rotation
“I don’t feel the rotation of the Earth,
not even when I see
the cities moving backward
through the train’s window,
one by one.
Not even when I return
each time to the same place
where birds pick up the mornings
with their beaks and spread them away
as new circles of light.
Not even when I sleep
and see you alive in my dream
and then wake knowing the dead
didn’t rise yet from their death.
Not even when I find myself
saying the same thing over and over
as if those words were oars
cutting through a river
we cross in turns
with our untold stories
to that same shore, in silence.”
“I don’t feel the rotation of the Earth,
not even when I see
the cities moving backward
through the train’s window,
one by one.
Not even when I return
each time to the same place
where birds pick up the mornings
with their beaks and spread them away
as new circles of light.
Not even when I sleep
and see you alive in my dream
and then wake knowing the dead
didn’t rise yet from their death.
Not even when I find myself
saying the same thing over and over
as if those words were oars
cutting through a river
we cross in turns
with our untold stories
to that same shore, in silence.”
October 24, 2019
In Her Feminine Sign by Dunya Mikhail is a collection of poems that focuses on and revolves around the Arabic letter ة (called the Taa Marbuta meaning The Tied Circle). This letter comes at the end of words and transforms masculine words into feminine ones: thus being the feminine sign. Dunya Mikhail uses the ة's power of transformation to transform the letter itself into other round-shaped objects such as the moon, a stone, eyes and turn them into art. Both the form and substance of these poems interconnect.
The cover is a painting by Joan Miró entitled Woman in Front of the Sun (1950) in which appears what seems to be a woman's head (among other things) but which looks like an evil eye mentioned in one of the poems. The table of contents itself is filled with letters similar to the tied circle such as "o" reminding us of the permanent presence of the feminine sign in all the poems even if they don't tackle a ة-related topic. Dunya Mikhail deals with different topics gracefully since they stem out of the ة and the dichotomy it represents (masculine/feminine).
This dichotomy is further elaborated with the themes of exile v. home as in the poem Baghdad in Detroit which embodies the rotational movement of the world and life in general. The author moved from Baghdad to Detroit two very similar cities.
I still have so much to say about these poems but I won't take the magic out for you. So I'll let you read them instead and get ready to be fully immersed in the ة world. If you read this book then my advice is to pay attention to the first poem "In Her Feminine Sign" which seems to work as an introductory poem. It will help you figure out some other poems. I highly recommend you grab a copy for yourself! The lyricism of the poems is beautiful, the references, the themes of these poems are totally worth your time. Take your time and enjoy!
The cover is a painting by Joan Miró entitled Woman in Front of the Sun (1950) in which appears what seems to be a woman's head (among other things) but which looks like an evil eye mentioned in one of the poems. The table of contents itself is filled with letters similar to the tied circle such as "o" reminding us of the permanent presence of the feminine sign in all the poems even if they don't tackle a ة-related topic. Dunya Mikhail deals with different topics gracefully since they stem out of the ة and the dichotomy it represents (masculine/feminine).
This dichotomy is further elaborated with the themes of exile v. home as in the poem Baghdad in Detroit which embodies the rotational movement of the world and life in general. The author moved from Baghdad to Detroit two very similar cities.
I still have so much to say about these poems but I won't take the magic out for you. So I'll let you read them instead and get ready to be fully immersed in the ة world. If you read this book then my advice is to pay attention to the first poem "In Her Feminine Sign" which seems to work as an introductory poem. It will help you figure out some other poems. I highly recommend you grab a copy for yourself! The lyricism of the poems is beautiful, the references, the themes of these poems are totally worth your time. Take your time and enjoy!
December 28, 2019
4.75 stars
A near-flawless collection. It's conceptual but doesn't get lost in the weeds. I think this would be a great book to share with someone who's new to poetry because it's accessible without being simplistic (think: Mary Oliver, Ada Limón). I checked it out from the library, so I definitely need to purchase a copy for my own personal library, as I know I'll be returning to it often. I particularly loved the second section comprised of Iraqi haikus. This is poetry that pierces the heart, from a poet with a deep connection to the world. Mikhail shows that the best poetry has a balance of true observation and nimble language. Can't recommend this one enough!
A near-flawless collection. It's conceptual but doesn't get lost in the weeds. I think this would be a great book to share with someone who's new to poetry because it's accessible without being simplistic (think: Mary Oliver, Ada Limón). I checked it out from the library, so I definitely need to purchase a copy for my own personal library, as I know I'll be returning to it often. I particularly loved the second section comprised of Iraqi haikus. This is poetry that pierces the heart, from a poet with a deep connection to the world. Mikhail shows that the best poetry has a balance of true observation and nimble language. Can't recommend this one enough!
December 3, 2019
Lyrical, traumatic, sincere
March 11, 2025
unexpected library find!!
dunya mikhail brings unique experiences to poetry, but her work is still very approachable and easy to read! this collection was sad, but also very hopeful. i loved her incorporation of arabic symbols and how you can really feel the deep love she has for her home in every poem.
dunya mikhail brings unique experiences to poetry, but her work is still very approachable and easy to read! this collection was sad, but also very hopeful. i loved her incorporation of arabic symbols and how you can really feel the deep love she has for her home in every poem.
March 20, 2020
Controversial Opinion:
I like some parts of it. Wish I enjoyed it more though. For me it held so much potential but it was always saying too much, leaving it unopen (in my opinion) to interpretation and a bit superficial (which is never a great way to handle difficult subject matter).
I like some parts of it. Wish I enjoyed it more though. For me it held so much potential but it was always saying too much, leaving it unopen (in my opinion) to interpretation and a bit superficial (which is never a great way to handle difficult subject matter).
May 6, 2024
Quick easy beautiful read. Some parts I really liked but others parts were hard to understand and so was kind of boring. I’m sure if I understood I would like it more!
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September 18, 2019This is how I approached purchasing this volume of poetry:
I had a vacation day and ventured into Busboys & Poets a small chain of restaurants that also sell select literature and non-fiction. Usually be minority authors, meaning non-white folk. I browsed the small section of poetry picking up books aiming for one by an author I never heard of and published in 2019. So I landed on this book. It is wonderful because I learned so much about the Iraq war and diaspora in the US and elsewhere. The poems invoke Iraq's ancient peoples: Sumerians & Babylonians, and their cunieform writing. The subjects tend to be somber but that's expected, what I didn't expect was to learn so much. Love, death, war, peace, homesickness, emigration, it is all here. I highly recommend this very readable collection.
I had a vacation day and ventured into Busboys & Poets a small chain of restaurants that also sell select literature and non-fiction. Usually be minority authors, meaning non-white folk. I browsed the small section of poetry picking up books aiming for one by an author I never heard of and published in 2019. So I landed on this book. It is wonderful because I learned so much about the Iraq war and diaspora in the US and elsewhere. The poems invoke Iraq's ancient peoples: Sumerians & Babylonians, and their cunieform writing. The subjects tend to be somber but that's expected, what I didn't expect was to learn so much. Love, death, war, peace, homesickness, emigration, it is all here. I highly recommend this very readable collection.
June 8, 2020
After really enjoying Diaries of a Wave Outside the Sea (especially Part I, with all those mind-blowing mathematics and science-related metaphors), I came into this with high expectations. I was a little disappointed, as it struck me as less inspired than Diaries.
When I enjoyed this collection, she was referencing Gilgamesh and Sumerian civilization, or finding fresh significance in the shape of particular Arabic letters (including the eponymous one, ة). This time she even includes drawings in which she has imitated the symbols engraved on on Sumerian clay tablets.
Yet in other cases her poems can verge into slightly corny territory ("As Leonard Cohen said, 'There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in'", "Save that in the 'Words as Vitamins for the Soul' file").
There was one poem in the collection that particular jumped out at me, which led me to increase this from 2/5 to 3/5: "Black and White". It resumes the chess metaphor that she favored throughout Diaries of a Wave Outside the Sea, yet in this case she delves in deeper, to thought-provoking results. As before, chess seems to signify war and conflict, in which the brunt of the losses are born by the "pawns" who had the misfortune of being born without power or autonomy. But what happens after all the rounds of "tossing wooden bodies into the box," what comes after checkmate? Her take is a surprising one which, to me, reflects a fundamentally hopeful view of human nature, in spite of the ravaging of her homeland, and the exile she has lived in for about a quarter of a century now, and the displacement of her compatriots--in spite of everything. Could it be that the pieces, even the kings themselves, have a hidden nature which runs counter to the dog-eat-dog rules of the game? What would it entail "To leave the board / for a life the color of water"?
The collection also touches specifically on the persecution of minority groups in Iraq at the hands of Isis (who infamously mark the letter ن on the doors of these individuals as death threat). However, having read the first bit of Mikhail's في سوق السبايا, I found that work far more affecting and powerful (maybe I'm just a prose guy). There, she relates a traumatic flashback experienced during the course of teaching the Arabic alphabet in an American classroom, whereby she looks at the letter ن on the blackboard and is transported back to an interview in Iraq during which she served as interpreter for a survivor of Isis' horrific sex trafficking industry.
Anyway, I would highly recommend reading Diaries of a Wave Outside the Sea in the language of your choice (it's available in an interesting bilingual Arabic-English edition). Personally, I found it to be more substantial, more emotionally resonant, and more fresh-feeling than this work.
When I enjoyed this collection, she was referencing Gilgamesh and Sumerian civilization, or finding fresh significance in the shape of particular Arabic letters (including the eponymous one, ة). This time she even includes drawings in which she has imitated the symbols engraved on on Sumerian clay tablets.
Yet in other cases her poems can verge into slightly corny territory ("As Leonard Cohen said, 'There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in'", "Save that in the 'Words as Vitamins for the Soul' file").
There was one poem in the collection that particular jumped out at me, which led me to increase this from 2/5 to 3/5: "Black and White". It resumes the chess metaphor that she favored throughout Diaries of a Wave Outside the Sea, yet in this case she delves in deeper, to thought-provoking results. As before, chess seems to signify war and conflict, in which the brunt of the losses are born by the "pawns" who had the misfortune of being born without power or autonomy. But what happens after all the rounds of "tossing wooden bodies into the box," what comes after checkmate? Her take is a surprising one which, to me, reflects a fundamentally hopeful view of human nature, in spite of the ravaging of her homeland, and the exile she has lived in for about a quarter of a century now, and the displacement of her compatriots--in spite of everything. Could it be that the pieces, even the kings themselves, have a hidden nature which runs counter to the dog-eat-dog rules of the game? What would it entail "To leave the board / for a life the color of water"?
The collection also touches specifically on the persecution of minority groups in Iraq at the hands of Isis (who infamously mark the letter ن on the doors of these individuals as death threat). However, having read the first bit of Mikhail's في سوق السبايا, I found that work far more affecting and powerful (maybe I'm just a prose guy). There, she relates a traumatic flashback experienced during the course of teaching the Arabic alphabet in an American classroom, whereby she looks at the letter ن on the blackboard and is transported back to an interview in Iraq during which she served as interpreter for a survivor of Isis' horrific sex trafficking industry.
Anyway, I would highly recommend reading Diaries of a Wave Outside the Sea in the language of your choice (it's available in an interesting bilingual Arabic-English edition). Personally, I found it to be more substantial, more emotionally resonant, and more fresh-feeling than this work.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 25, 2019
4.5/5
loved everything in the last two sections.
loved everything in the last two sections.
August 2, 2019
The blurb and the author’s note didn’t pull me in, but I received this as part of a monthly poetry book club (Rumpus) and waited to finish it as part of #TheSealeyChallenge. The poetry in this collection is breath-taking. The poems are timely. I can’t wait to use some in my classroom.
April 12, 2024
wow wow wow
There are so many things I loved about this poetry collection. I'm not someone who loves poetry at all because I am wildly unclutured among other reasons, but this one, I really loved and it was enjoyable to read! Not one moment made me cringe because every word was so perfectly flowing with every other word.
I want to make a list of all the things i absolutly loved:
1. From the set go, the title and the first poem matched. I loved that the title and the first poem were the same because now everything makes sense, the major theme of the collection is introduced and I know what kind of poetry I'm getting into. It make the experience more pleasant.
2. The theme of the arab letter to represent the feminine was so wonderfully portrayed in every poem. the circular nature of the letter was beautiful to see unfold in different parts of the poetry collection
3. The relevance of the poetry starkly applies to many other war torn areas in the middle east and even beyond that. Themese of war is poignant to so many other areas and I could feel deeply in that regard to many other situations.
4. I loved that it was short and so to the point, no wasted words. so many lines hit a home run.
I need to read more poetry like like for sure
There are so many things I loved about this poetry collection. I'm not someone who loves poetry at all because I am wildly unclutured among other reasons, but this one, I really loved and it was enjoyable to read! Not one moment made me cringe because every word was so perfectly flowing with every other word.
I want to make a list of all the things i absolutly loved:
1. From the set go, the title and the first poem matched. I loved that the title and the first poem were the same because now everything makes sense, the major theme of the collection is introduced and I know what kind of poetry I'm getting into. It make the experience more pleasant.
2. The theme of the arab letter to represent the feminine was so wonderfully portrayed in every poem. the circular nature of the letter was beautiful to see unfold in different parts of the poetry collection
3. The relevance of the poetry starkly applies to many other war torn areas in the middle east and even beyond that. Themese of war is poignant to so many other areas and I could feel deeply in that regard to many other situations.
4. I loved that it was short and so to the point, no wasted words. so many lines hit a home run.
I need to read more poetry like like for sure
March 8, 2022
this collection was haunting beautiful. it was an unfortunate timely read between reading Mikhail’s poems and updates on the ongoing war in Ukraine. Mikhail is brutally honest about the horrors of war after fleeing her home country of Baghdad, and to me this entire collection reads as an ode to the victims of war. it is a gesture of remembrance so that not only do we remember those who were lost and those who survive in grief, but also as a reminder of the reality of war, especially for those who do not experience it so intimately. i can’t wait to get my hands on more of Mikhail’s collections now!
February 24, 2020
Read for book club, and glad I did, as I'll want to hear what others have to say as well. Many of the framing poems (around the central section) spoke to me, though in a much quieter and restrained voice than I am used to. The central poems speak to me in ways others than thought - I'll want to return to them, see how they move me, see what they spark in me even without "understanding" them.
November 10, 2020
Lovely.
August 13, 2021
Really, gut-wrenchingly sad.
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January 7, 2022I loved this book--because it surprised me, because it introduced me to Dunya Mikhail, her variety and strong, lovely voice and an experience I want to understand.
August 5, 2022
Loved!!!
November 21, 2022
Absolutely stunning ❤️
August 25, 2023
Five stars for My Poem Will Not Save You alone.
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March 23, 20245 stars for parts 1 and 3; 2 stars for part 2……
October 7, 2024
Not bad, but rather like contemporary American poetry. “Tablets” is much more impressive.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews