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Illiterate Heart: Poems
Winner, 2002 PEN Open Book Award
Recipient, 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship
Meena Alexander's poetry emerges as a consciousness moving between the worlds of memory and the present, enhanced by multiple languages. Her experience of exile is translated into the intimate exploration of her connections to both India and America. In one poem the thirteenth-century Persian poet Rumi visits with her while she speaks on the phone in her New York apartment, and in another she evokes fellow-poet Allen Ginsberg in the India she herself has left behind. Drawing on the fascinating images and languages of her dual life, Alexander deftly weaves together contradictory geographies, thoughts, and feelings.
Recipient, 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship
Meena Alexander's poetry emerges as a consciousness moving between the worlds of memory and the present, enhanced by multiple languages. Her experience of exile is translated into the intimate exploration of her connections to both India and America. In one poem the thirteenth-century Persian poet Rumi visits with her while she speaks on the phone in her New York apartment, and in another she evokes fellow-poet Allen Ginsberg in the India she herself has left behind. Drawing on the fascinating images and languages of her dual life, Alexander deftly weaves together contradictory geographies, thoughts, and feelings.
- GenresPoetry
106 pages, Paperback
First published April 17, 2002
2 people are currently reading
149 people want to read
About the author
Meena Alexander
47 books54 followersMeena Alexander was an internationally acclaimed poet, scholar, and writer. Born in Allahabad, India, and raised in India and Sudan, Alexander lived and worked in New York City, where she was Distinguished Professor of English at Hunter College and at the CUNY Graduate Center in the PhD program in English. She was the author of numerous collections of poetry, literary memoirs, essays, and works of fiction and literary criticism.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 2, 2025
27 ‘I start to write fragments
as much to myself as to another.’
31 ‘Soon there was an altercation
in the frame of things.
I could not tell when the threshold stopped,
where barbed wire would work its bounty
[...]
civil strife
crowding the rivers.
I had to tell myself that birdsong
in a partitioned land
is birdsong still.’
50 ‘Is this mere repetition,
or the warm sprawl of time,
inscribed in limestone?’
68 ‘These lines took decades to etch free,
the heart’s illiterate,
the map’s torn.’
as much to myself as to another.’
31 ‘Soon there was an altercation
in the frame of things.
I could not tell when the threshold stopped,
where barbed wire would work its bounty
[...]
civil strife
crowding the rivers.
I had to tell myself that birdsong
in a partitioned land
is birdsong still.’
50 ‘Is this mere repetition,
or the warm sprawl of time,
inscribed in limestone?’
68 ‘These lines took decades to etch free,
the heart’s illiterate,
the map’s torn.’
Want to read
October 9, 2025Not getting
August 31, 2008
Really it's a 3 1/2 stars. This is my first Alexander book and has convinced me she is a great poet. Her first poem cycle is a bit clunky, but she quickly gathers steam and keeps up the momentum until the end of her collection. Her poems bridge India and America, and give a place for those who search for their culture in their country and experiences. The language is palpable like good poetry should be and you feel a longing and joy in her craftsmanship. Can't wait for her next gig.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews