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melodyseestrees's review
challenging
emotional
inspiring
slow-paced
3.75
If you are someone with internalized biases there are a couple poems that may invoke ire in you. I encourage you to sit with yourself and reflect why. This is a work where you should take your time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism and Racism
Minor: Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Cultural appropriation
f18's review
dark
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
4.0
5 stars for the introduction, which appears to be a teaser/excerpt added later for "preFiction." Describing several hypothetical evolutions of physical books, the diagrams of which contain poems themselves, this section is dense, layered, cyclical and difficult to read, pushing/playing with the format of text and bringing attention to the technology used to write it. There is a similar but different introduction to nejma. Would love to experience the full collection but the ebook doesn't seem to exist anymore.
edit: After fully reading the preFiction section in nejma. I have a bit more concern, considering the disappearance and reappearance mentioned in the article below and the way that nejma. doesn't seem to show a transition/development of a style closer to that in preFiction, that Waheed may have been dealing with the onset of mental illness with symptoms of hypergraphia. I haven't seen it in full and I am not a medical professional, so I hope that isn't the case. I love the ideas of circular reading and deconstructing language, but more than that I hope for her safety and health.
https://thesciencesurvey.com/arts-entertainment/2021/12/02/a-faceless-poet-releases-a-multi-faceted-poetry-collection-a-review-of-prefiction-by-nayyirah-waheed/
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4 stars for the original text of salt.:
"even the small poems mean something.
they are often whales in the bodies of tiny fish."
So says one of the small poems interspersed between longer (and shorter) pieces. Viewing this as a single larger work rather than isolating each piece will give you a better experience. The imagery and language Waheed uses is built up over time (the symbolism of salt, flowers, water, etc) adding meaning if you read them together. Additionally, some pages that seem simple serve as small spots of relief, moments of healing between areas of hurt and anger.
Most of the poems feature a format that visually recalls an attribution but function as titles after the fact and read in some ways like hashtag rap. This sometimes felt unnecessary, like the poem wouldnt change if this line were removed, but there are many examples that work incredibly well, altering the meaning of what you previously read and/or subverting her own style, which warmed me to their use as a whole. Traditional poem titles can have the same issue between potentially adding nothing but sometimes recontextualizing-- would love to see a poet using both forms of titles and play with how the order itself can affect meaning.
This is my first time reading a full collection of "instagram poetry." I am still predisposed to the longer format pieces in the book that are more than capable of standing alone (I don't think there were any I didn't get on with, unlike the short pieces), but I really think that each was enhanced by the worldbuilding of the whole.
edit: After fully reading the preFiction section in nejma. I have a bit more concern, considering the disappearance and reappearance mentioned in the article below and the way that nejma. doesn't seem to show a transition/development of a style closer to that in preFiction, that Waheed may have been dealing with the onset of mental illness with symptoms of hypergraphia. I haven't seen it in full and I am not a medical professional, so I hope that isn't the case. I love the ideas of circular reading and deconstructing language, but more than that I hope for her safety and health.
https://thesciencesurvey.com/arts-entertainment/2021/12/02/a-faceless-poet-releases-a-multi-faceted-poetry-collection-a-review-of-prefiction-by-nayyirah-waheed/
---
4 stars for the original text of salt.:
"even the small poems mean something.
they are often whales in the bodies of tiny fish."
So says one of the small poems interspersed between longer (and shorter) pieces. Viewing this as a single larger work rather than isolating each piece will give you a better experience. The imagery and language Waheed uses is built up over time (the symbolism of salt, flowers, water, etc) adding meaning if you read them together. Additionally, some pages that seem simple serve as small spots of relief, moments of healing between areas of hurt and anger.
Most of the poems feature a format that visually recalls an attribution but function as titles after the fact and read in some ways like hashtag rap. This sometimes felt unnecessary, like the poem wouldnt change if this line were removed, but there are many examples that work incredibly well, altering the meaning of what you previously read and/or subverting her own style, which warmed me to their use as a whole. Traditional poem titles can have the same issue between potentially adding nothing but sometimes recontextualizing-- would love to see a poet using both forms of titles and play with how the order itself can affect meaning.
This is my first time reading a full collection of "instagram poetry." I am still predisposed to the longer format pieces in the book that are more than capable of standing alone (I don't think there were any I didn't get on with, unlike the short pieces), but I really think that each was enhanced by the worldbuilding of the whole.
Content Warnings
Minor: Colonisation, Misogyny, Cultural appropriation, Racism, and Toxic relationship
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