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Brilliant Corners
The preoccupations of Brilliant Corners include the tangible damage inflicted by empires, plunder of the global money markets, disfigured lives, and the bitter salves of Western privilege. Engaging with writers and artists in the European canon, the poems take necessary risks in their scrupulous approach to different experiences.
93 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
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June 20, 2022I had the same feeling reading this as when bouldering with friends who were far, far better than me. I'd stand below them and watch them climb, unsure how they even began to navigate the series of holds which, to me, looked completely impenetrable. I could appreciate the logic of the climbs, the skill of the people who'd set them, and the skill of the people climbing them. But to me they were inaccessible.
These poems are incisive, compelling, technically proficient. For me, near the beginning of my journey with poetry, I can appreciate these things in occasional small bursts. Something cuts through that makes me pause, think, challenge some conception. For other people, further along their journey and more familiar with the process of appreciating poetry, I think they'd offer more.
These poems are incisive, compelling, technically proficient. For me, near the beginning of my journey with poetry, I can appreciate these things in occasional small bursts. Something cuts through that makes me pause, think, challenge some conception. For other people, further along their journey and more familiar with the process of appreciating poetry, I think they'd offer more.
August 25, 2022
Luscious language, stunning imagery…this is real poetry!
October 24, 2023
I had the fortune of studying under Nuzhat Bukhari at Oxford. Until I met Nuzhat, I had not stopped to consider the complex heritage of language or of writers -- I had read widely, but mostly just enjoyably and superficially. After every tutorial, I felt compelled to run to the library to read everything she'd mentioned. I wanted to keep pace with her mind!
I am so glad to encounter Nuzhat Bukhari's thinking again, and on the page this time.
I was struck both by the compression of language (the sprinkling of unusual hyphenations made me revisit connections between words -- and people) and the placing of viral images/ideas (seemingly disparate ones) in dialogue.
"How can the civilised feel clean when it took the bile / of slaughtered animals to make soap." (!)
"Virologists insisted on visors, detergents (even if sold by black marketeers)...
Some people stood by windows, static as iguanas, with their corrugated skin
and magical disguises, reciting the season's mantra to keep safe...
(When was everyone ever kept safe?)" (!!)
"Ovid makes it plain that a person will risk life or limb / rather than be trapped in a labyrinth."
(I love the slant rhyme here between 'limb' and 'labyrinth,' too.)
I am so glad to encounter Nuzhat Bukhari's thinking again, and on the page this time.
I was struck both by the compression of language (the sprinkling of unusual hyphenations made me revisit connections between words -- and people) and the placing of viral images/ideas (seemingly disparate ones) in dialogue.
"How can the civilised feel clean when it took the bile / of slaughtered animals to make soap." (!)
"Virologists insisted on visors, detergents (even if sold by black marketeers)...
Some people stood by windows, static as iguanas, with their corrugated skin
and magical disguises, reciting the season's mantra to keep safe...
(When was everyone ever kept safe?)" (!!)
"Ovid makes it plain that a person will risk life or limb / rather than be trapped in a labyrinth."
(I love the slant rhyme here between 'limb' and 'labyrinth,' too.)
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews