No Knowledge Is Complete Until It Passes Through My Body

by Asiya Wadud

A revelatory collection of poems by Asiya Wadud that document the forces that shape the human body in movement and explore the continuum and conditions of how knowledge is enacted. Through a series of transmissions and proposals, the poems in No Knowledge Is Complete Until It Passes Through My Body explore the intelligence of the body, especially bodies under duress. Wadud evokes the hum and chorus that fills us when we write to explore methods and modes of circulation, continuum, and claustrophobia. Drawing from the performance practice of Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born, Wadud asks, how does a thread of logic form? How do we extend the thread on either end so we see the lineage and continuum of our thoughts?

Genres: Poetry

128 pages, ebook

First published February 2, 2021

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent and challenging collection from Asiya Wadud. Drawing its title from a quote from Congolese dancer and choreographer Faustin Linyelula, Wadud explores the diasporic experience, with particular attention to the physical experience of the body. Bodies of water, coastlines, and other settings of transition frequently form a backdrop. “the order was in the hour of worship,” which opens the collection, and the later “attention as a form of ethics,” in particular, are breathtakingly powerful.

[Juliet Bryant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps even 2.5⭐ :(
Yes, it's experimental poetry or whatever. Yes, she's exploring one idea over multiple works. Yes, I understand the value in repetition. But holy shit there has to be a limit on the number of times you can use the same word across works. It becomes so cheap to me, and I got really frustrated with that. I also got very bored reading poems about the same thing over and over. Middle Passage, Left to Die Boat, etc. I get it!

Possibly just hard to read because it was for class, but it was brutal to get through. Syncope was a better experience when I wasn't comparing it to No Knowledge.

Maybe when I have more energy in 10 years Wadud will have moved on to a new topic and I'll enjoy it more.

Favorite piece was entitled "it was satisfactory".

[Meaghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This started off hard for me to understand but as I read on it got much better. Beautiful, yet tangled language.
.
My favorites from the collection:
-"chapter 2, verses 1-30 / for Dionne Brand"
-"on the structure of birds"
-"See the schism"
-"yucca brevifolia: field notes from an ellipse"
-"the atoll of my great country"
-"concerning the house I stayed in, December 2017"
-"attention as a form of ethics"

[mimoo · Rating 5 out of 5]

this long, wide, gorgeous line ——