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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'In Arabic, ‘bayt’ means house and also a line of poetry. Welcome. I hope you enter and explore. The poems in this issue are universes, every one of them an ode of sorts: to food, to music, to home(s), to language(s), to (be)longing, to cars, to the body, to dogs, to neighbors, to family, to friends, to god, to cities, to the self, to grief, to love. There’s so much love in these poems; I felt held re-reading them this morning.' (Zeina Hashem Beck, Editorial)
Notes
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Only literary material within AustLit's scope individually indexed. Other material in this issue includes:
In Search of Living Rooms Filled With Laughter: On Belonging as a British-Lebanese in a Time of Revolution by Nasri Atallah
The Arabic Poem that Jumped the Fence by Huda Fakhreddine
Two Verandahs and a Lull in Gunfire by Sara SaabOr Did You Really Think It Was the Path of No Return? by Hedy Habra
Big Song by Naomi Shihab Nye
My Mother-in-Law Prays in the Next Room by Rewa Zeinati
Ain Al Hasouda by Rasha Al Duwaisan
Apologies to What I have Lost and Will Lose by Marlin M Jenkins
From Istanbul by Nusaiba Imady
:3 by Nathalie Handal
pH by Farah Chamma
Seismic Shifts by Elmaz Abinader
Ticker by Fady Joudah
All Summer, I Waited For Frank by Hazem Fahmy
salat the morning after a terrorist attack by Dujie Tahat
love poem for the newly out by Zeyn Joukhadar
To Grieve for All Your Other Selves by Lena Tuffaha
Skyping My Mother by Philip Metres
A Refugee Grows Old by Zeina Azzam
Porch Haiku by Hayan Charara and Marwa Helal
Substitute by Glenn Shaheen
Like Smoke Does by Threa Almontaser
Years we lived close to the bone by Ruth Awad
Losing It by Jessica Abughattas
antigone 4 by Fargo Tbakhi
Looking for Shade in Beirut by Ahmad Almallah
Eminent Domain Tanka by Deema Shehabi
A Palestinian Seeks Therapy by Lina AlSharif
Dream Where I find My Roof by Diane DeCillis
Fish in Bushwick by Kamelya Youssef
luv poem 2 (while listening to lady lamb) by Jess Rizkallah
Ramadan, 1979 by Majda Gama
Journey by Lisa Suhair Majaj
Elegy on Plastic Kazoo by Peter Twal
apology by George AbrahamUnderstanding by Chad Abushanab
Spring Fragment by Leila Chatti
Being-Nothingness by Zaina Alsous
How did the gods make skin waterproof, asks my lover by Hind Shoufani
fairouz is searching for a pair of eyes by Zein Sa'dedin
For the Bagged Body in Front of Koshary Ameen Restaurant by Nadra Mabrouk
god moves at the speed of my name by Noor Ibn Najam
Ode to My Husband, Who Brings The Music by Zeina Hashem Beck
Contents
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Reel Bad Lebs,
single work
essay
'Up until I was nine years old, my favourite film was Blood Sport. Frank Dux, who was played by Van Damme in the prime of his career, competed against the world’s best fighters in the underground martial arts tournament called the Kumite. Early in the film, a brown-skinned man in a traditional Saudi headdress named Hossein tries to force the white female lead, Janice, upstairs to his hotel room for an ‘interview’. When she refuses, Hossein raises his open hand to slap her. Fortunately, Frank Dux intervenes, grabbing Hossein’s arm and winning a bet against him, which spares the blonde-haired damsel from imminent physical and sexual assault. As a result, Frank gets the girl the consensual way – they take a friendly walk, making fun of Hossein as they meander, they have a romantic dinner and then they head back to Frank’s hotel room for a wholesome night of procreation.' (Introduction)
- Dear White, It’s OK to Be Whitei"Dear white, it’s ok,", single work poetry
- Dedicationi"She asks me why I don’t write in Arabic.", single work poetry
- Little Cityi"little city, on your scorched days Rania and I pool our", single work poetry
- Fairouz …i"The last one of us has left home…", single work poetry
- Here, There : a Ghazali"The barista in Chippendale wants to know where you’re from, mispronouncing your", single work poetry
- The Beautiful Terriblei"Glory be to the loss. What is there", single work poetry
- Straw Widowi"We a land without a people. We skeletal", single work poetry
- Love Under Capitalismi"The new joint around the corner keeps", single work poetry
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Pascalle Burton Reviews Jackson’s A Coat of Ashes,
single work
review
— Review of A Coat of Ashes 2019 selected work poetry ;'Jackson’s third book, A Coat of Ashes, published by Canberra’s Recent Work Press, is a contemplation about how the discourses of Daoism (or Taoism), physics and systems theory might be fused through the methodology of poetry. The collection springs from her acclaimed PhD project, which was awarded the Edith Cowan University Research Medal, the Arts and Humanities Research Medal, and the Magdalena Prize for Feminist Research. The accompanying prose component of her thesis offers a rich background of selected writers whose work is imbued by physics or Daoism, as well as her creative approaches to this book.' (Introduction)
- Bil 3arabi : 6 Poems by Sara Saleh, selected work poetry
