Literary reviews by Tim Love.
Warning: Rather than reviews, these are often notes in preparation for reviews that were never finished, or pleas for help with understanding pieces. See Litref Reviews - a rationale for details.
Showing posts with label Zayneb Allak. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Zayneb Allak. Show all posts

Saturday, 25 November 2017

"Keine Angst" by Zayneb Allak (New Walk editions, 2017)

About 20 pages of poems (from The Rialto and New Walk) from a new pamphlet publisher. I'm having trouble with them. Some seem rather inconsequential - "I stumble along the train as it grinds/ across the land. It carries me/ south, towards a sea and sleep. ... Beyond the door is a garden, hosed cool./ I'll borrow its shade and later,// plant an orange tree and watch it grow/ strong enough for me to climb/ into its branches as they sway" (p.16). Some (e.g. "When I was acht jahre alt") are baffling. In general I can't see what they're trying to do. Too sophisticated for me.