re: desire

by Afshan D'souza-Lodhi

Afshan Dsouza-Lodhi's debut poetry collection re: desire explores the yearning to love, be loved and belong from a desi (South Asian) perspective. Her work sits on the intersections of flash fiction, poetry and script, echoing the hybridity of the worlds that many young British desis find themselves occupying. Drawing on the poetry of many different languages and cultures Urdu, English, Konkani, Islamic and Christian this collection explores how we access our traditions from a distance.

re: desire is a collection of poetry that draws upon literary traditions and cultural references to flip the male gaze common in mushairas on its head. Common themes for mushairas arelove, God and being drunk or intoxicated by love and God but is usually seen from a male perspective. The pieces in re:desire are mainly told from a female perspective, and question the gender given to particular acts, objects and ideas.

Genres: Poetry

97 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2020

Reviews

[Nikita Gill · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fiery, powerful poetry collection that uses the cadence and beauty of the Urdu language to convey the experience of desi womanhood. Fierce and wonderful, I savoured every word in this collection!

[Liv · Rating 4 out of 5]

"regret is an overused
term and love a mis-
used one. she
used it to mean jumping
in front of flying bullets and
he used it to fuck her."

"


[re:desire] by afshan d'souza lodhi is a poetry collection inspired by different languages and cultures - Urdu, English, Konkani, and Islam and Christian traditions.

It draws upon the literary traditions and cultural references of mushairas which are typically from the male gaze and flips this on its head by focusing on the pieces being told from the female perspective. The common theme of mushairas are love, God and being drunk or intoxicated by love and God.

Afshan explores sexuality, gender, identity. Some of the poems are quite raw and I really liked them and others the meaning perhaps eluded me but I'll definitely return to ponder them.

It is noted by the author that this type of poetry (mushairas - being social gatherings where Urdu poetry is performed) is most commonly performed and read aloud and I definitely feel this would provide a stronger vibe to the whole collection.

It felt quite edgy and clever and overall I enjoyed sitting and reading these poems over several days and I'm really enjoying my branching out into the poetry genre in general.

[Charlott · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5