Faisal Mohyuddin Livres

Exploring the intricacies of grief, the narrative reflects on the profound impact of loss and the struggle to find peace amidst haunting memories. The speaker grapples with the duality of becoming a father while mourning his own, revealing a deep connection between past and present selves. Through fragmented responses, deconstructed haibun, and dreamlike sequences, the work emphasizes the transformative power of expressing sorrow. Ultimately, it advocates for turning pain into poetry and generosity as a means of healing.

Mohyuddin's craft is composed of measurable touches that go hardly noticed. There is the jelly-fish in space (lament though the poem may be), a talking banana, binging on pumpkin pie. The title refers to diaspora and the poems refer to families in and immigrants from Pakistan, with literal landscapes and clear memories to be enjoyed. And yet, the subject matter is overtaken by such themes as boundary, legacy, loss, claim. Whether a long narrative poem, or shorter lyric poems, these are the works of a poet, mature in his concerns and thinking. - Kimiko Hahn, final judge of the 2017 Sexton Prize for Poetry.