Pluck Me and Hum

Kazim Ali

Aga 2015 · Kuthengiswe ngu-Harper Collins

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Kazim Ali has become known for his careful attention to the architecture of a poem, his restless intellect and his musically driven line. In these eight poems and two diary entries, Ali draws on deep literary and cultural tradition to explore history, devotion, both spiritual and physical, and loss and loneliness in fractured lyrics, surreal narratives and prose poems. In addition to a ghazal, 'Rain', and a poem drawn from his study of yoga, 'The Art of Breathing', he includes an imagined correspondence between the Sufi teacher Rumi and his friend Shams, a poem and diary entries from his experiences of fasting, and the persona poems 'Fairy Tale', 'The Wrestler' and 'The Astronomer'. Taken together, these poems demonstrate once more Ali's profound belief in sound and breath as the measure of an ever-shifting and deeply felt interior life.

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Kazim Ali's books include several volumes of poetry, including Inquisition, Sky Ward, winner of the Ohioana Book Award in Poetry; The Far Mosque, winner of Alice James Books' New England/New York Award; The Fortieth Day; All One's Blue; and the cross-genre text Bright Felon. His novels include the recently published The Secret Room: A String Quartet.