What do you think?
Rate this book
Babeldom
Poetry. Palestinian Studies. At the intersection of narrative and noise, the poems in BABELDOM emerge to explore and translate the unheard and strange babel that surrounds our different worlds. These poems grasp at the hurried and ephemeral conversations within and outside of us that stretch from the quiet hours we spend alone to the anonymous faces that we pass on our daily commutes. BABELDOM is the exploration of all of this, this kingdom of babel, that we all wake and sleep in, in which the muffled noise you hear from across the street might be the prayer or indignation or defeat of another protagonist in a different story.
"These poems by Talal Alyan are suffused with incandescence, secrets hidden in dream and unearthed in waking life, answers to 'a prayer you haven't yet made.' They are a body spread across continents, deep in their longings, generous in their inclusions. An astonishing and prodigious first collection."--D.A. Powell
"Talal Alyan's BABELDOM is full of ears and prayers, commands and desires. It explores the way we try desperately to hang onto ourselves and each other in an overwhelming world and imagines the landscape we'll leave after we're gone. Even that landscape, though--human-less, apocalyptic, possibly radiated--contains the echoes of the voices we have whispered countless times into the dark, and is better for them."--Elizabeth Cantwell
"This book reads like lightning. Talal Alyan's writing straddles a fine line between surreal beauty and striking honesty. Tender and feral, illuminating and heartbreaking, BABELDOM marks the rise of a powerful voice in poetry."--Liz Worth
"These poems by Talal Alyan are suffused with incandescence, secrets hidden in dream and unearthed in waking life, answers to 'a prayer you haven't yet made.' They are a body spread across continents, deep in their longings, generous in their inclusions. An astonishing and prodigious first collection."--D.A. Powell
"Talal Alyan's BABELDOM is full of ears and prayers, commands and desires. It explores the way we try desperately to hang onto ourselves and each other in an overwhelming world and imagines the landscape we'll leave after we're gone. Even that landscape, though--human-less, apocalyptic, possibly radiated--contains the echoes of the voices we have whispered countless times into the dark, and is better for them."--Elizabeth Cantwell
"This book reads like lightning. Talal Alyan's writing straddles a fine line between surreal beauty and striking honesty. Tender and feral, illuminating and heartbreaking, BABELDOM marks the rise of a powerful voice in poetry."--Liz Worth
- GenresPoetry
60 pages, Paperback
Published January 20, 2019
59 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 13, 2019
Talal Alyan’s poetry is commanding in that it isolates one in a world where fears are confronted at full force, smashing into walls built with stoicism and struggle. I’ve known Talal for years now, and I see him in these words - the ever-wise one carrying forth profound heart, softness and courage in our Babel.
November 30, 2021
As my introduction to Talal Alyan, I could not be more impressed with Babeldom. The author's willingness to be honest nearly to a point of self-deprecation is so admirable. There are a few prose style poems that feel as though they were purely stream of consciousness, like they came from notebook to chapbook untouched. Great work here.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews