Disbound: Poems

by Hajar Hussaini

Hajar Hussaini’s poems in Disbound scrutinize the social, political, and historical traces inherited from one’s language. The traces she finds—the flow of international commodities implied in a plosive consonant, an image of the world’s nations convening to reject the full stop—retrieve a personal history between countries (Afghanistan and the United States) and languages (Persian and English) that has been constantly disrupted and distorted by war, governments, and media. Hussaini sees the subjectivity emerging out of these traces as mirroring the governments to whom she has been subject, blurring the line between her identity and her legal identification. The poems of Disbound seek beauty and understanding in sadness and confusion, and find the chance for love in displacement, even as the space for reconciliation in politics and thought seems to get narrower.

Genres: Poetry

89 pages, Paperback

Published November 21, 2022

Reviews

[Christina Barber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to University of Iowa Press for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: November 21, 2022

***

Hajar Hussaini’s “Disbound” is a tactile and sensuous debut poetry collection. Relating her experiences as an Afghan, now living in Iowa, she touches on the social, the political, and the cultural in her series of poems. Modern and free-form, Hussaini plays with structure and delivery, painting small portraits of moments and memories, diverse and colourful offerings. Language is wielded with care and grace, where coordinating consonants and double-entendres are woven into lucid and powerful verse.

[A · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fragments-pare-ye ketab-things blurred, misted-an "extreme mist", "an extreme amount of mist"-sight impaired. Geographies charted by paper, then papers torn, "I pulled myself / out of the map", "in my mind. I commute to a post office. where the letters / can be sent like a mailbox i'm emptied".
Language disbounded, of course, the name Hajar split and separated, the full stop placed on a scale, bombast in the "magic kiosk" of intertwined languages (the magic-that Persian and English are so connected?), "a separation technique" dividing language from context, sister from sister, dis-embodied. "self-parody" makes "a way of separating. my lines" into a scoff, without renouncement. "breakage", "division", "disintegration" return.
Photographs as temporary form. Pain is the story, is not the whole story-"lit ambulances" anoint the holy month..."since low land keeps warmer colors", "the dogs had to come back" - "this is not part of / the sentence". Identity split, identity a moot point: "I've dwelled in a hypothetical / place of birth I too wouldn't pick / these identification markers".
The tone is somber, until there is a sarcastic twitch, a little scary, the suddenness of "a tin of pringles". The poem "jocular geopolitics" is a "hidden smile", but a warning, the laughter a gesture sprung from pain.
"a distinctive duplication"
"nine elevenistan"

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciated the importance of this voice and especially at this time, but I also appreciated, even more, the author's ability to use space and line breaks to create a sense of observation and witness. I think I might enjoy this voice more in an anthology or reading the book slower, rather than in one big gulp.

[H · Rating 5 out of 5]

Astonishing. As achievement, as gift to its readers.

[J.G.P. MacAdam · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read that took me about halfway through to really lean into. Hajar Hussaini is an Afghan poet and literary translator who lives in Iowa City, Iowa. The most emotive poem for me was "disbound" for which I think the collection was titled. It's about the fall of Kabul and it has this artistic placing of the words over the whole page. Interesting. 👍