Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Dunya Mikhail

Dunya Mikhail
I heard Dunya read at the Dodge Festival in 2010 and found her poems stunning. She wrote about the war, about life in Iraq, about how writers met in coffee houses, about her love for language. She told us the amazing story of being separated from her lover during the war for 10 years and how they found each other, magically. And now reading her poem, "Tablets," published in the March issue of Poetry, I see once again the sparkle in the lines when she takes us to the heart of separation and longing. The land cries on the lap of the one that has left. Families want to hear more than what they are told. Language can only reveal so much, we are told in the poem. And Dunya's poem etches suffering and love in tablets so they will stand like edicts or landmarks on our path.

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