” I am:
The beginning of every end.
The evolution of revolutions in becoming.
I am matter borne from matter:
The universe in every breathe; “
With power, confidence and grit, we are introduce to the first words of Zaira Pirzada that are simply beautiful and motivating, on the first poem “The Magnificent”, and our eyes are openly and abundantly gifted with the beauty of her words and wording. Rhymes that make us appreciate ourselves a little more, telling us that even though we may not feel great about ourselves we will always be miracles of nature, in Nature.
Zaira Pirzada has a way of reinforcing her meanings on the rhymes, stressing the imagery and the gravity of the meaning that is so graceful, so beautiful that it leaves you curious to why the choosing of words, to the point that we, readers have to read again those same little lines in order to appreciate those same lines once again, simply because of their beauty and witty structure, it’s very impressive indeed.
Breath-taking poems with EXCELLENT verses created with such tenderness that we get the sense that IF we read it wrong, we might scrap and break the poem, if that makes sense.
As we read, we are blown away by the sheer genius of Zaira when it comes to convey beauty, be it light or dark in so few lines!
“Longing drew by twilight an illusion in my bed:
lost desires haunting me ever yet
always teasing and fleeting by day,
….”
This is poetry written by a very experienced hand, no doubt, because in order to convey so much in so few words is a skill that only the best writers can do with such ease, and I have to take my hat off to Zaira Pirzada on this book. AMAZING!
“When I’m Home” is a very interesting piece, because it focuses on discrimination and how people treat each other as savages, as mindless, unthinking animals unworthy of life just because they are different and call them savages in order to “justify” the massacres that they will commit, and the lines of Zaira, asking, demanding, reasoning and pleading for them to speak in her mother tongue in order for them to acknowledge that is a powerful thing on its own that brings the sensitivity that contrasts and blends perfectly with the imagery of brutality that she invokes. Relevant, beautiful, powerful!
How can one NOT fall in love with:
“The histories and hierarchies
of humanity
are futile to the future
of the dead,”
…..“For time prepares slowly,
the delicacy of our end.”
Poems like “Immigrant History” will make you stop and think HARD upon the cruelty of the “civilized” and the “white and pure“, and the hypocrisy of the colonizers of the past era, while also, in the very few verses and two stanzas, showing the distress, the trauma and all the despair of a people that is still broken. Powerful. Masterful.
“Let It Be Heard” is a piece about George Floyd that is VERY well written and touches the reader with the questions it dares to ask, such as:
“I beg:
who taught us that black bodies
no longer feel pain?That only one man can kneel,
and that is if upon the neck of the righteous.”
…
“that our silence
is worth more than their children.”
This book gives clear jabs to the throat of the illusion that America was made great by the “Founders” and the “heroes, the brave and the free” and we love the accuracy and the strength of the blow that creates a clear impact to it’s target. It’s priceless, to read
It shows the reality, once again, that many still ignore and outright deny, and the following poems reinforce how the old age of America is coming to an end and the sins are being called upon.
Poems about self-love, and how people shame and hate upon what they cannot have, and the mental growth that every woman must have in order to love herself and realize that they are already beautiful.
How can one not fall in love with such a beautiful hand that makes each piece of paper that it draws its movements on become treasures of literature? HOW? Please, someone tell me. This book is GORGEOUS!!!!!
Pros:
Everything! This a concise, beautiful, masterfully crafted collection of poetry. If I picked a list of aspects on how great this is, I would be always lacking in describing it.
Scribble's Worth 