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nuhafariha's review
3.0
Thank you to Button Poetry and NetGalley for this Advanced Reader's Copy!
Available April 7th!
In "Birthright", Palestinian American poet George Abraham cultivates a sense of mania. He speaks eloquently about loss, hope and ultimately captures a truth about living. Living in a country that renders you invisible, living in a state that renders you an enemy, living in a culture that considers your mental health and sexual orientation a blasphemy. Each poem is saturated with energy and love, a deep respect for his Palestinian heritage and a strong appreciation for American spirit. A great collection from a rising poet!
Available April 7th!
In "Birthright", Palestinian American poet George Abraham cultivates a sense of mania. He speaks eloquently about loss, hope and ultimately captures a truth about living. Living in a country that renders you invisible, living in a state that renders you an enemy, living in a culture that considers your mental health and sexual orientation a blasphemy. Each poem is saturated with energy and love, a deep respect for his Palestinian heritage and a strong appreciation for American spirit. A great collection from a rising poet!
arianavandyck's review
5.0
From the Foreword:
"Within these pages, we examine the inverse of birthright. How do I write this without mentioning the obvious oppressor? An oppressor who deserves no more space in our minds, in our imaginations. I will their erasure in the writing of this and in the reading of Abraham's words. The violent existence of Israel, our complicity in allowing it. The ongoing genocide of Palestinian people and the rapid theft of their land and lives."
This whole collection is staying with me; the lyric, exposition, narrative, the Map of Home at the end. A few poems I keep thinking about: "ars poetica with waning memory," "from Adaptation Portraits (strange cartographies)" and the series of "in which you do not ask the state of israel to commit suicide."
"Within these pages, we examine the inverse of birthright. How do I write this without mentioning the obvious oppressor? An oppressor who deserves no more space in our minds, in our imaginations. I will their erasure in the writing of this and in the reading of Abraham's words. The violent existence of Israel, our complicity in allowing it. The ongoing genocide of Palestinian people and the rapid theft of their land and lives."
This whole collection is staying with me; the lyric, exposition, narrative, the Map of Home at the end. A few poems I keep thinking about: "ars poetica with waning memory," "from Adaptation Portraits (strange cartographies)" and the series of "in which you do not ask the state of israel to commit suicide."
e_flah's review
"my mind is a country / that sets itself ablaze"
Birthright was a poetry collection that frequently made me feel as if I didn't know enough about poetry to enjoy it. Many of the forms used for the poems seemed as though they were part of a broader conversation within the genre that went over my head as an interested, non-expert. My favorites of the collection were "IX Mistranslations of Ash (Haifa, 2016)" and "Ode to Mennel Ibtissam singing Hallelujah on The Voice (France), translated in Arabic."
C/W:suicidal ideation, queerphobia, death of a loved one, war violence
Birthright was a poetry collection that frequently made me feel as if I didn't know enough about poetry to enjoy it. Many of the forms used for the poems seemed as though they were part of a broader conversation within the genre that went over my head as an interested, non-expert. My favorites of the collection were "IX Mistranslations of Ash (Haifa, 2016)" and "Ode to Mennel Ibtissam singing Hallelujah on The Voice (France), translated in Arabic."
C/W: