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Breaking Poems
Poetry. In BREAKING POEMS Suheir Hammad departs from her previous poetry books with a bold and explosive style to do what the best poets have always done: create a new language. Using "break" as a trigger for every poem, Hammad destructs, constructs, and reconstructs the English language for us to hear the sound of a breath, a woman's body, a land, a culture, falling apart, broken, and put back together again. "Suheir Hammad's BREAKING POEMS introduces English to an Arabic vernacular that startles into being an altogether new language, bridging the archipelago of a Palestine under siege to the diaspora and beyond, breaking through convention, breaking open locks on mind and heart, breaking into a music inspired by the Coltranes, Sun Ra and free jazz, Lee Scratch Perry and Ravi Shankar, a music that is at once a joyous celebration of survival and a poignant cri de Coeur that cannot be ignored and that Mahmoud Darwish should have lived to see. This is a poetry written for people who have endured the winds of hurricanes and invasions. What wisdom, energy, joy and poignancy Hammad brings to the page for all of this, and for teaching me a new speaking, I give her my thanks" Carolyn Forche."
62 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
July 9, 2009
A-FREAKING-MAZING -- if you only read this book once, you won't get the depth. You've gotta sit with this sistah for a while and read and read through and read under until your mind "breaks" or you have a break through. Seriously, this is not poetry for the weak. :-) LOVE IT.
December 9, 2008
Suheir is the real deal...A poet's poet...Every time I read (or hear) her words I swear the sky opens up a bit wider, and the sun shines a hell of a lot brighter...There's no darkness to or in her words...She's one of the best poets writing today....and she's only getting better & better!...She's my girl!
May 31, 2017
In a lot of ways, the collection reads as one poem as a whole - one journey inwards into memory and history and spaces/places. Romanized Arabic words weaved into the English, Suheir Hammad claims the multiplicity that makes her identity whole. Linguistically, the collection breaks borders and the sounds of words - English and Arabic - flow into each other like river streams meeting in a vast ocean. Reading these poems out loud made the music in them real.
November 7, 2021
This is such a fascinating book and I found myself reading each poem, checking the glossary at the back, and then reading it again. It's unlike most poetry I've personally read before but I've already found myself thinking back to earlier poems in the book connected to people and events I see.
It might take a bit of effort but Hammad's poetry is very much worth it. I just really want to hear it read now.
It might take a bit of effort but Hammad's poetry is very much worth it. I just really want to hear it read now.
February 3, 2017
I was about halfway through thinking I am just not the audience for this...then I found the glossary at the back. So I started over and the poems gelled. I do like the incorporation of the Arabic a lot, but the breadth of style and scope seemed rather limited. I continue to suffer from comparing everything to Zaatardiva.
October 12, 2018
Breaking Poems is the most engaging poetry collection I have read in a long, long time. I read it all over the span of just two days (I rarely ever read poetry collections that quickly). Breaking Poems reads as one cohesive unit with a solid and meaningful theme and message. Suheir Hammad's voice is loud an clear.
December 27, 2009
these poems had an addictive affect on me...like i couldn't stop reading them, even when i tried to put the book down. it's odd because unlike fiction, i usually read poetry books in several sittings... the musicality of suheir's language, and the merging of arabic, really pulled me in.
August 10, 2017
I love Suheir Hammad's spoken word pieces but had trouble with this until I got to a poem that I'd heard her perform (on YouTube). Then it all clicked.
December 6, 2022
I read this collection in a seminar on Arab women’s literature in university and it was interesting to come back to it now and have different takeaways. A beautiful collection that gets you thinking
November 4, 2008
I just started reading Suheir Hammad’s breaking poems yesterday evening, and already, it’s so great to witness all of this breaking. Her syntax is broken, her lines are clipped, and her poems are bombardments of images and words, demonstrations of brokenness and piecing together of selves, of languages, histories, and geographies. I am totally loving that in her poems, it’s no longer necessary to speak in argument convincing sentences; the fact of her being, speaking, the fact of her family’s, her communities’, the fact of women surviving in Palestine, in Iraq, in New Orleans, is argument enough.
Hammad brings into her poems words in the Arabic language in a way I’ve never seen her do before; such “basic” words as “I” and “and,” in addition to “fire,” and “war,” among many others, just well-placed and punctuating the poems. I have gotten to the point in my reading that if I do not see the English words for “I” and “and” anymore, then it is understandable, and it also corresponds to the music she’s established throughout the collection in these clipped lines, stripped of all the fat and fluff, where these English and Arabic words, infused with Hip-Hop, urban street language, are popping in your mouth as you speak them.
Really, the point of the collection thus far for me has been the reassembling of the many selves, in a continuum of war against poor people, against folks of color, against immigrants, against women, and the self is all of these things which cannot be extricated from one another.
And so for those American poets who doubt the existence or relevance of well-written political poetry in the USA, for those who think “political poetry” is just a fad, I would say to leave your comfy little academic and abstract circles and open your minds to poets coming out of communities of color, immigrant communities, multilingual communities, communities of working folk and families, these American poets’ communities, and see that “political poetry” has always existed, has always been necessary, has always been crafted and spoken and sang, has always served to educate, inspire, and mobilize its constituents.
Hammad brings into her poems words in the Arabic language in a way I’ve never seen her do before; such “basic” words as “I” and “and,” in addition to “fire,” and “war,” among many others, just well-placed and punctuating the poems. I have gotten to the point in my reading that if I do not see the English words for “I” and “and” anymore, then it is understandable, and it also corresponds to the music she’s established throughout the collection in these clipped lines, stripped of all the fat and fluff, where these English and Arabic words, infused with Hip-Hop, urban street language, are popping in your mouth as you speak them.
Really, the point of the collection thus far for me has been the reassembling of the many selves, in a continuum of war against poor people, against folks of color, against immigrants, against women, and the self is all of these things which cannot be extricated from one another.
And so for those American poets who doubt the existence or relevance of well-written political poetry in the USA, for those who think “political poetry” is just a fad, I would say to leave your comfy little academic and abstract circles and open your minds to poets coming out of communities of color, immigrant communities, multilingual communities, communities of working folk and families, these American poets’ communities, and see that “political poetry” has always existed, has always been necessary, has always been crafted and spoken and sang, has always served to educate, inspire, and mobilize its constituents.
May 1, 2013
Before going off on my review I'm going to say this, this book is definitely not for people who aren't entirely familiar with poems. I had to use her book for my ENG102 college class and I absolutely hated it. First off, I find her stanzas to be rather incoherent and a jumbled mess. It's a headache trying to read and interpret what she is saying. Adding insult to injury, some of her stanzas contain lines in Arabic and some of which are not translated in the back part of her book.
When one wants to be a good writer, you should be able to engage in a large, widespread audience. I do not believe that Suheir Hammad's poems can do this. I find absolutely no sense of connection and absolutely nothing keeps me invested in the book. Reading it feels more like a chore than something pleasurable. Her book doesn't seem like it engages in a wide audience. Instead I think it is mostly people who are familiar with poems and English Majors who would understand her work. Me? It's just a meaningless book that I find no use for in my life.
I do not find the book to be worth the $12 I got it for. If I were to sell it, I'd ask for twice the money, I'd want the part of my life I spent on this book and on the essay based on the book back and a free bottle of aspirin.
When one wants to be a good writer, you should be able to engage in a large, widespread audience. I do not believe that Suheir Hammad's poems can do this. I find absolutely no sense of connection and absolutely nothing keeps me invested in the book. Reading it feels more like a chore than something pleasurable. Her book doesn't seem like it engages in a wide audience. Instead I think it is mostly people who are familiar with poems and English Majors who would understand her work. Me? It's just a meaningless book that I find no use for in my life.
I do not find the book to be worth the $12 I got it for. If I were to sell it, I'd ask for twice the money, I'd want the part of my life I spent on this book and on the essay based on the book back and a free bottle of aspirin.
December 21, 2015
At times, the broken aspect of these poems becomes overwhelming, as you can only look to the back so many times before you've forgotten the start of the poem. In some ways, this is a reflection of lived experience through trauma; while trying to piece together a memory, you find yourself recollecting aspects tangentially related in an effort to guard yourself from the actual reality of the past.
January 5, 2009
Suheir is a genius. She wrote a new language that is like nothing you ever saw before. Go buy this shit before it sells out.
August 7, 2010
Powerful words from a amazing artist I was fortunate to receive a autographed copy from Suheir.her words reflect on powerful heartfelt tragedy and joy in her life
February 21, 2013
beautiful and powerful.
November 22, 2014
hammad inspires me.
June 10, 2015
'don't tell me you know this lonely...'
March 29, 2016
A. Great. Poem
October 23, 2013
The addition of Arabic words in this work was intoxicating.Once again bravo Suheir!
April 20, 2017
"(tel aviv)
write your own damn poetry
build a grammar with something other than bones.
(gaza)
a woman's hand cups bloodied sand bits scalp ooze
to the camera and says this is my family."
Suheir Hammad's poetry speaks to me. There is no better way of putting it. The Palestinian struggle, one I cannot relate to, but feel strongly about, is once again perfectly described by the poet. She doesn't hold back, and I can't think of why she'd have to. Noone hears, but Gaza continues to bleed, and that comes across perfectly in this poetry collection. Though Palestine isn't the only motive, it remains as my favourite.
"why gaza can die so easy in front of everyone and no one say no gaza
as maze gaza as haze of nonhumans wa generalized attacks militant
population no such thing as civilian."
I enjoyed Born Palestinian, Born Black: & The Gaza Suite tremendously, and I feel like my expectations were too high for Breaking Poems to be just as good. I liked it, but on some areas, it fell short. For one, the descriptions of some of her experiences. The collection was quite hard to get into in the beginning because I felt like she was talking to her family and friends, and not just any reader. As a result, some of the poems were difficult to understand. Of course, we don't read to relate to every single character and story, but in this case, some of the poems felt way too intimate.
I also liked how she incorporated the Arabic language, and since I knew some words from beforehand, it wasn't a struggle to keep up. Still, the list of words at the back were of great help. I felt some Arabic words were repeated over and over, but one word I liked whenever it was used, was "yamma" - mama, mother.
"when the moon visits
kiss her back kiss her knees kiss her feet
chest heavy kiss through heart."
write your own damn poetry
build a grammar with something other than bones.
(gaza)
a woman's hand cups bloodied sand bits scalp ooze
to the camera and says this is my family."
Suheir Hammad's poetry speaks to me. There is no better way of putting it. The Palestinian struggle, one I cannot relate to, but feel strongly about, is once again perfectly described by the poet. She doesn't hold back, and I can't think of why she'd have to. Noone hears, but Gaza continues to bleed, and that comes across perfectly in this poetry collection. Though Palestine isn't the only motive, it remains as my favourite.
"why gaza can die so easy in front of everyone and no one say no gaza
as maze gaza as haze of nonhumans wa generalized attacks militant
population no such thing as civilian."
I enjoyed Born Palestinian, Born Black: & The Gaza Suite tremendously, and I feel like my expectations were too high for Breaking Poems to be just as good. I liked it, but on some areas, it fell short. For one, the descriptions of some of her experiences. The collection was quite hard to get into in the beginning because I felt like she was talking to her family and friends, and not just any reader. As a result, some of the poems were difficult to understand. Of course, we don't read to relate to every single character and story, but in this case, some of the poems felt way too intimate.
I also liked how she incorporated the Arabic language, and since I knew some words from beforehand, it wasn't a struggle to keep up. Still, the list of words at the back were of great help. I felt some Arabic words were repeated over and over, but one word I liked whenever it was used, was "yamma" - mama, mother.
"when the moon visits
kiss her back kiss her knees kiss her feet
chest heavy kiss through heart."
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews