Amorisco by Khaled Mattawa

Abstract

?fi ' ^H , identificationwith nature, itmight ^H 1 be more accurate to call it "tribal BH , post-avant." Fractured narrative is JBB? 1 one of the markers of post-avant HB i poetry, and Hoahwah's poems cer BH ' tainlymess around with narrative BH i time?the difference is that, rather W?? , than inventing a language practice Bl ' to do so,Hoahwah draws on tribal HB i concepts. Many tribes understand BH 1 physical places tobe layered in time, 9H i so that when one stands in a particu HH 1 lar spot, all thehistory of thatplace HB i is there, interpenetratingwith the j^B present. HB i Sense of place, in these poems, ^H , is also sense of history. The inter HB 1 penetration of history and thepres|H| i ent force an ironic perspective and ^H 1 a tolerance for contradiction. For ^H i example, in "He was a Rollin' 20," ^H which might initially seem to be ^H 1 a straightforward narrative of two ^H , men's rivalry, the speaker says that ^H 1 "The Lakota gangsta and I, / from ^H , thedistances of yards to centuries, / Hh 1 have shot at each other, / and chased ^H 1 each other / from Indian reserva BH j tion to Indian reservation." "Yards j^H 1 to centuries" isnot (just) a figureof H , speech; it expresses the multitem HB 1 poral reality of tribal history. The ^H 1 diasporic experiences of Oklahoma H 1 Indiansmultiply thediscontinuities.|H| 1 Although most of the poems H 1 in the collection do not display the Hn 1 erratic typography and obscurant HH syntax of some post-avant poetry, BH 1 several poems require the reader to H , piece together a paratactically pre BH 1 sented event or to recall a reference|H| , in another poem. However, the col ^H 1 lection as a whole works like the ^H 1 community of Madischie does? ^H ! fully understanding the poems ^H 1 requires thatyou take the time to lis ^H , ten toeveryone's stories. In this way, HH 1 among others, itis trulytribalpoetry. ^H 1 Since it is probably impossible for ^H 1 an early-careerNative male poet to publish a book without enduring comparisons to Sherman Alexie, let us make this first comparison critically useful. If Alexie's poetry is tragicomic magic realism, then Hoawah's is tragicomic surrealism. Sy Hoahwah's Velroy and theMad ischie Mafia is edgy, smart, compel ling,powerful, haunting, funny,and disturbing; it is a bruising evocation of contemporary Native life written in a style that is both sophisticated and lucid. Jeanetta CalhounMish UniversityofOklahoma Khaled Mattawa. Amorisco. Keene, New York / Port Townsend, Washing ton. Ausable / Copper Canyon. 2008. 77 pages. $14. isbn978-1-931337-44-1 Khaled Mattawa is a poet whose lyrics spin prismatically in the "between." This Libyan-born poet is clearly between worlds, but it ishis willingness in his latest collection, Amorisco, to grapple with a space that is neither this nor that,which draws us into the work?a work, Campbell McGrath writes, with surfaces whose "solidity erodes or fractures or flowers unexpectedly." It is not just the desire to reassess the between; Mattawa calls us to understand the importance of this space and to embrace it. In a con temporary world that is constantly fragmenting, Amorisco stands as a collection full of admittance, but also of hope. Amorisco opens with a sequence poem in fragmented form, aptly titled "Against Ether," thatbegins: "With my certainties, I assemble the elements / A burned suit / the earth's gloved hand / a book made of petals /Daylight's answer evaporates before our eyes." The poem serves as a perfect example of the surprising language inAmor isco, and also illustrates the poet's = enduring desire to findmeaning in E the fragmented,while also showing E that truth is constantly shifting?a E book can disassemble like petals? E thus, meaning will constantly need E to be reevaluated. E Mattawa's fascination with the E human desire tomake sense of the E world?and, surely, the immigrant's E desire to find a balance between E two worlds?is further embodied = in the last stanza, where the poet E speaks about his father...