Philip Metres Livres

Using techniques of erasure, Metres seeks rhythm or language within the spare, bleak testimonies of those tortured at Abu Ghraib.

The collection features beautifully crafted lyrical narratives that evoke the complexities of Russia, blending its grandeur with its stark realities. Through vivid imagery, the poems reflect on the experience of being an outsider, illustrating moments where silence speaks louder than words. The interplay between cultural symbols, like Pushkin's statue and modernity, enriches the exploration of language and identity, making for a poignant and immersive reading experience.

Exploring themes of travel, memory, and perception, this work serves as a heartfelt tribute to St. Petersburg, intertwining the legacies of literary giants like Pushkin and Dostoyevsky. Originating from a journal in 2002, the poet reflects on his earlier visit to this vibrant city, rich with spectacle and nostalgia. The narrative is harmonized with Mussorgsky's suite, which mourns a lost friend, highlighting the complex relationship between language and experience. This collection captures the essence of love and loss in a city steeped in history.

Dynamically pairing traditional and experimental forms, Philip Metres traces ancient and modern migrations in an investigation of the ever-shifting idea of home. In Fugitive/Refuge , Philip Metres follows the journey of his refugee ancestors—from Lebanon to Mexico to the United States—in a vivid exploration of what it means to long for home. A book-length qasida, the collection draws on both ancient traditions and innovative forms—odes and arabics, sonnets and cut-ups, prayers and documentary voicings, heroic couplets and homophonic translations—in order to confront the perils of our forced migration, climate change, and toxic nationalism.  Fugitive/Refuge pronounces the urge both to remember the past and to forge new poetic forms and ways of being in language. In one section, Metres meditates on the Arabic greeting—ahlan wa sahlan—and asks how older forms of welcome might offer generous and embodied ways of responding to the challenges of mass migration and digital alienation in postmodern societies. In another, he dialogues with Dante to inform new ways of understanding ancestral and modern migrations and the injustices that have burdened them. Ultimately, Metres uses movement to create a new place—one to home and dream in—for all those who seek shelter.