Friday, March 22, 2019

A Long Drawn Face






I knew Homa when she was a graduate student at Cornell University.  She is a talented person, and could have easily become a professional writer (she is an economist).

A Long Drawn Face showcases her gifts.  She presents original themes in all her poems, but most form a singular thread.  One is the female voice.  In “Two Women” she writes of a character who would “sooner / choke than go without words.”  In “The Letter Aitch” she writes “we lose a foundational piece of our souls when we pigeonhole our mouths.”  In “String and Bow” “untuned words came out of you / and instead of disbanding into white noise / they condensed in me / like a leaky faucet”

Homa provides a range of voices in this collection that are fresh and clear.  Each poem contains a vital message about communication, understanding, and language.

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