AustLit

'The title of Omar Sakr’s latest collection references the Covid pandemic and comes from his prose poem ‘Diary of a Non-Essential Worker’. It also reminded me of Plato’s banning of the poets from his ideal republic, and Auden’s line that ‘poetry makes nothing happen’. Throughout Non-Essential Work, Sakr explores the limits of poetry and its function in society, questioning the value of his own art, letting us in on his doubts. In the poem ‘Your People Your Problem’, he asks: ‘What is a song worth singing here? / The silenced are listening.’ Despite these doubts, or perhaps because of them, he has achieved a powerful collection of lyric poetry, simultaneously political and intimate.' (Introduction)

'Omar Sakr’s Non-Essential Work is a book of love, often in the face of despair. It expresses a love for queerness, for moments of physical love, for flesh and desire, love for the poet’s wife, for his people and family, for friends and even strangers, and for God and the Prophet Muhammad.' (Introduction)