Ante body

by Marwa Helal

An incisive poetic sequence that tracks the relationship between migration and complex traumas in this unsparing critique of the unjust conditions that brought us the global pandemic.


Ante body is a poetics of [un]rest. A project that started as an exploration of how the psychological impacts of migration and complex traumas manifest as autoimmune disease and grew into a critique of the ongoing unjust conditions that brought on the global pandemic. Continuing her use of the invented poetic form, the Arabic, and integrating Fred Moten's concept of "the ANTE," Helal creates an elliptical reading experience in which content and form interrogate the inner workings of patriarchy, capitalism, nationalism, and globalism.

Genres: Poetry

76 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 3, 2022

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ante body is Marwa Helal's second collection of poems, a further refinement of her voice and style from her first collection. The verses here are urgently political, at times militant. Helal explores contemporary issues like police violence and the apartheid state in the Middle East. She plays with forms in interesting ways, occasionally utilizing a right-to-left script, reflecting the Arabic. The poems tend to prioritize message over rhythm, at least to my ear, although I suspect that is by design.

[juch · Rating 2 out of 5]

Uncomfortable w how much I disliked this tbh. Polemical which is not bad but in a flattening way. The speaker is angry at white supremacy and borders and being excluded from queer and black communities in the same breath. The political and personal jabs are articulated like mic drops but not particularly interesting, funny, or generative (like the line about napoleon having a napoleon complex bc he’s white, not short). I once paid for a workshop where the instructor suggested starting poems w science facts interpreted as metaphors, it feels like a lot of poems here similarly offer facts (like both black American slaves and Egypt produced/produce cotton) as if they’re enough to make some kind of point. Like the point is probably there but when operating at the level of metaphor rather than historical or economic analysis, it feels like a false equivalency or worse, a literary device extracted from reality and oppression. This is kinda how I feel about the poems written from right to left too, like they’re gimmicky (as much as we should interrogate that concept) and somewhat superficial, the form is about bilingualism but the content is all over the place. I am curious how helal reads them aloud tho, that’ll probably come up in class

Maybe I’ll feel differently when we go over it in class. Also I’m probably harsh in a personal way bc I’m interested in bilingual poetic forms too, and bc I’m locked out of my apt in the rain rn

[Sarah Cavar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Innovative and high-concept! I'll be returning to this one as I think about legibility and poetic craft.

[Ceyrone · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of this poet. I introduced this poet to fellow English teachers in my staff room and we have no added this to a unit of work. I am so excited and cannot wait for the students to experience her words. I love how she subverts language and makes people uncomfortable having to read from right to left. You really have to sit with the words, to really think about what has been written. If there's an underlying theme, it is that of displacement, of being the Other and the formal choices reflect that experience. I highly recommend this collection of poems.

[Natalie Park · Rating 4 out of 5]

These poems were interesting and thought provoking. I really loved the idea of the poem to be read from right to left.

[Dawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A not-uninteresting read for it's spit and fury. I got a little preaching-to-the-choir vibe, so I'm not surprised that other readers love teaching this book (vs savoring it). I can see kids liking and hating and really arguing about poems which always delights me. My favorite passages where more visually and lyrically satisfying (quoted below but wrongly formatted)

3. this poem cant go on without hex i mean
hex
heeee x
hex
hex and hex

hex heq hez hex


she was stolen bought sold lost put undex huxied alive at bixth
she was dxagged in blue bxa duxing a xevolution with vixginity
tests she waits then she doesnt she sh sh sh stlh she you she
the best thing that happened to you then she lililililililiiiii she
intifada she moves with two kinds of gxace she ups the ante
aging by candid defiant elegance she roxgets but nevex roxgives

She-language complex
she complex she so complex she complex got complex complex

[Serena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting read! The verse written right to left was uncomfortable for me at first- which it was supposed to be as it wasn’t what I was used to, and it was meant to be more comfortable for those who speak and read Arabic and other languages that are written that way, and meant to challenge the status quo of white English speakers dominating the stylism and presentation of verse in poetry in America. It was brilliant. I didn’t care for the authors choice of purposely using improper grammar and such even though I know it was used to make a point, but again, I recognize that this book wasn’t written for me. The topics and themes were wonderful, but it didn’t feel focused on the pandemic as the description seemed to imply. Overall this was a very unique and brilliant book that presents a new way of focusing the conversation on these disparities.

[angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

if i made an altar of books that are guiding lights, this would be on it. the innovativeness with form and concept and consideration creatively interrogates beautiful questions about existence and community and freedom and distraction and self love and so much more. the agility that is shown from word to word, line to line left me in awe time and time again. her refinement and expansion of the form “the arabic” was such a pleasure, and a practice in expanding perspective and entry points of consideration, a practice in focus and intentionality. i am deeply grateful to have read, to be able to read again, and to know that more is coming.

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

These polemical prose poems often read like essays or speeches broken and rearranged into poetical lines and stanzas, defying genre conventions to convey messages about gender, “bodies without agendas,” race, colonization, trauma, epigenetics, and the limits of language to represent marginalized Arabophone voices (epitomized by “People the We,” which must be read from right to left like Arabic).

“I have a heart

murmur
it tells me everything I need to know”
—from “Pretend Not to Know What You Know”

“and what if every time you were asked where youre from you simply pointed to your heart?” (p. 23)

“When the poet is driving, the poet decides where the turn in the poem is.” (Notes/Acknowledgements)


Favorite Poems:
“respectability was the first form of erasure”
“I recently discovered my anxiety”
“beast of no omissions”
“People the We”
“the days is numbered”

[Natalie D.C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

An inspiring collection of poetry on language and migration by my new favorite poet Marwa Helal. I love the ingenuity of the poetic forms that Helal works with in this collection - while I struggled at the beginning to figure out which way to read the poems (I'm still unsure if I read some of them correctly), I really admire the "right to left" form Helal sticks with until the end. My favorite pieces from this collection include "WHO REAL?" and "the days is numbered," but I really enjoyed this entire collection and hope to revisit it soon.

[Roxane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting read. Stylistically, it's very challenging. The poetry demands your attention and really does some unexpected things. If there's an underlying theme, it is that of displacement, of being the Other and the formal choices reflect that experience. The author's note at the end also provides some useful context for the work as a whole.

[lara · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5// maybe i would’ve enjoyed this more if i hadn’t read invasive species first — unfortunately i found myself comparing the two and this one felt lacking for me at times. still, interesting use of form and good ideas.

[Liván · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my cup of tea. Porque mientras sin dudas fue una propuesta de estilo muy interesante, no me gustó la manera en la que se presentaron las ideas. El uso del lenguaje no fue lo mío, ni efectivo ni evocador.

[Marije de Wit · Rating 5 out of 5]

This set my heart on fire.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

An original form-defying book of defiant poetry that I read mostly in one sitting. It’s so rare that someone does a whole new thing. This is great!

[em (lattereads)]

read for class. I’m definitely left a little confused by some of the poems, and I’m excited to discuss them further in class. I loved the innovative form and use of language in this collection.

[era · Rating 5 out of 5]

"i keep the language i pray in far
from your reach"

[Haley Bibbee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting quick read.
Something I've noticed with this new era of poets, is that they tend to format it in a way that can take a moment to figure out how it should be read, and for this it can (unfortunately) turn me away from enjoying it more. I didn't realize if it was just that the ebook version was just coming across weird, as it was my only option to read this through my library, but the further I got, the more it made sense. No page numbers for quotes this time around, as page numbers shift and change depending on text size or device.

About halfway through, it all seemed like gibberish and had me wanting to fly through it and get it done with, but that's when I realized, with the help of the backwards question marks, is that the sentences were written backwards:
"precog that this
speak postverbal
the get you did
⸮yet EXTRATRANSMISSION"
Should be read as "this that precog postverbal speak. did you get the extratransmission yet?" And that is when I realized my mistake, went back to the beginning of the section, and tried again, forcing myself to slow down to grasp the material before me.

"why wondering still im
uncomfortable so me makes it
truth the tell to
myself for up stand and
remember i then and
you of 99.99% because is it ,oh
gaslight to how me taught
self my"

My favorite line, before the backwards section came in:
"dont confuse anger for
obsession or the erotic for
rhetoric"

Her last entry spits. There was no other way for me to read it other than quickly, and was such a nice hit to end things on.

"im a believer, yes. but do
not ask what it is i believe
in."