The Glimmer is a meditation on the time-span of life illuminated by many voices. In an artists' colony in Mexico, a taxidermist tends animals in their after-life, contemplating what remains of us after death. Among the artists she encounters are a painter of miniatures, a war photographer, a light artist, a ghazal singer, and dancers from Tanzteater Wuppertal, as they reflect on the impulse to make work and meaning in a world where value is increasingly monetised. Within the extended narrative are self-contained poems ranging in form from syllabics and ghazals to OULIPO-inspired anagram poems, drawing on found text and verbatim speech to bring a choir of voices to life. The title work is followed by two elegies. The Glimmer is Shazea Quraishi's second full-length book of poetry, following her debut, The Art of Scratching.
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She wakes to birdsong, sun slats on the floor suitcase by the door spills clothes quiet of the house, a cocoon, a skin. THE GLIMMER
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(@BloodaxeBooks, 15 September 2022, 104 pages, #ARC from the publisher via @ edelweiss_squad)
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This is a new poet for me so I had no idea what to expect from The Glimmer. I really enjoyed this poetry collection. The poems touch on a range of subjects, some ordinary and some I've never come across before. There are no two poems alike. I really enjoyed the rich language, imagery and lush descriptions. I'd recommend this.
