The Strength to Wirte

Tarfia Faizullah is a poet that brings rhythm to her work. She explores on her accounts of violence, war, and loss through her powerful poems. Through rhythm, or song, Faizullah lets her words dance around and through her readers, breaking into even the most uncomfortable forms you don’t quite see often. The beauty of her poetry is that they allow you to feel the serenity from within them all while acknowledging some of her vulnerabilities. Faizullah does not hold back even moments that take some writers years to be able to share with others. One thing I kept on stumbling on is wanting to believe what I was reading wasn’t all true. I wanted some of it to be fake so I would not be forced, or at least encouraged, to write about my emotions and experiences as well. I think it gave me hope that it was okay to write about hurting or having been hurt in the past.

Faizullah shares very intimate moments with her readers and is not afraid to hold personal information just for herself. From the second you open the book to the minute you put it down, you feel the waves hit you again and again but you only want more because you want to know you are not the only one hurting too. Being so open with her experiences, Faizullah does an amazing job bringing dialogue into her poems without ever finding a way to make them obvious. We hear many voices through her narrative as she brings her experiences back to life for us, to be felt along with her. One of my favorite poems, 100 bells, reads off as a song to me, with the rhythm being different for every reader. I enjoy the experience of trying to read poetry in our tone and the change that occurs when we hear how the poet reads.

Overall, I truly enjoyed reading Faizullah and was honored to be a part of the presentation of the week for her. It was incredible to learn more about her involvement now and how she lets writing continue for her. I definitely felt like her work resonated with me just as Fatima Asghar work did so I am glad I could hear that in the beginning of the semester and just as it is about to end.