lisan al'asfour

By Natalie Hanna

With moving invocations for softness and strength, the poems in lisan al’asfour introduce a personal concept of creation around loss and matrilineage, and explore the schism between defining and maintaining identity. These are poems that speak to our efforts to make sense of the worlds we construct, and the collection embraces an impassioned approach to literary practice as anti-oppression practice, through the perspective of the critical self-subject.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arbeiter Ring Publishing
• Release date: Nov 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781927886670

Natalie Hanna

Natalie Hanna is an Ottawa lawyer working with low income populations, and an alumna of Carleton and Ottawa University. Her writing focusses on feminist, political, and personal relational themes. From April of 2016 to September of 2018, she served as the Administrative Director of the Sawdust Reading Series and on the board of Arc Poetry Magazine. Her poem “light conversation” received Honourable Mention in ARC Magazine’s 2019 Diana Brebner Prize.

Book preview

Cover: lisan al'asfour by natalie hanna

lisan al’asfour

natalie hanna

arp books | winnipeg

Copyright © 2022 natalie hanna

ARP Books (Arbeiter Ring Publishing)

205-70 Arthur Street

Winnipeg, Manitoba

Treaty 1 Territory and Historic Métis Nation Homeland

Canada R3B 1G7 

arpbooks.org 

Cover artwork and design by Leslie Supnet.

Interior layout by Relish New Brand Experience.

Printed and bound in Canada by Imprimerie Gauvin.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

This book is fully protected under the copyright laws of Canada and all other countries of the Copyright Union and is subject to royalty. 

Funder Logos: Canada Council, Manitoba Arts Council, Government of Canada, Government of Manitoba

ARP Books acknowledges the generous support of the Manitoba Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada and the Province of Manitoba through the Book Publishing Tax Credit and the Book Publisher Marketing Assistance Program of Manitoba Culture, Heritage, and Tourism.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Title: Lisan al’asfour / Natalie Hanna.

Names: Hanna, Natalie, author.

Description: Poems.

Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20220409633 | Canadiana (ebook) 20220409668 | ISBN 9781927886663 (softcover) | ISBN 9781927886670 (ebook)

Classification: LCC PS8565.A579 L57 2022 | DDC C811/.54—dc23

contents

dawn, unfold...

in my sweetest dreams i am still stealing flowers...

pharmacognosy papyri came to rest around the world

anemone

do not stand up as a witness against me

naharda

notes in the margin of the hospital itinerary

body of christ

to feel no pain at all

magic show i–iv

after brown

we cry openly at table i–iv

married doctors of the golden age

bird’s tongue

a place she keeps clean

index of error i–v

peremptory challenge i–vii

there are some in every crowd

the mountains we become while inhabiting the earth

the face of the moon i–ii

oil

mother looks at me

syrian aperture

white coat

method of exit

may

cathy and heathcliffe on the moors

picking out cards in the sympathy aisle

font of the covenant i–iv

concealed weapons i–iv

on the run with the cult of saint cecilia, beheaded, unrepentant

wearing this skin

hibiscus

light conversation

on caressing a cool, smooth wall i–vii

tokyo cinema

i have stopped recording my dreams...

the shoe of the dervish...

dawn, unfold

your body like a love emerging

from the blanketed hollow

of the bed and

in the first moment glow

a little on my face and arms

that i may remember

i am wanted

in my sweetest dreams i am still stealing flowers

from every public bush, a menace to marigolds

armed with pruning shears, escaping at speed

with armfuls of lilacs, dianthus, and snapdragons

the bittersweet nightshade grown to monstrous size

drooping over branches of petal-dropping

apple blossom and magnolia

a riot of iris spears strangled with myrtle

i am not above sneaking through

the gardens of the very posh neighbours

to carry off the peonies, for what do i care

for the worries of ants and the sleepy bees

when i too am so empty of honey

pharmacognosy papyri came to

rest around the world

i cradle the compendium

of herbs and wildflowers

from my mother

who tells me that even within

the same garden one plant

among its sisters may grow mean

and full of poison for lack

of water, lack of sun

lack of goodness from the earth

the rosewater that sings

love into my mouth

is but a diluted breath

of grandmothers’ arias

distilling rose