See our third instalment of our top ten unmissable poems published in Poetry Wales from the last 5 years. To celebrate 55 years of publishing poetry, every Friday we’ll be releasing two poems from the list, with our final post including a downloadable PDF edition of the poems. The ten poems in this short collection were selected by Nia Davies, editor of Poetry Wales (2014-19). Our top 5 poems are included for free with our Summer 2019 issue.

 

no. 6

Fairouz and French Toast

by Hanan Issa

You always write my name in barbecue sauce on the plate

And now I can’t hear a Fairouz song without seeing

your beautiful back flipping egg-soaked bread, pouring my coffee.

She’s singing about Beirut: She tastes like fire and smoke.

I chew the warm soggy bread, the salty toast and sweet sauce.

You hum along with her: You are mine, you are mine.

 

The coffee tastes strong, a bit ashy. I picture the fire

and smoke of all the places where they love Fairouz.

‘Another piece?’ You take my plate and replenish my name.

The coffee leaves debris on my tongue. I want to hold it all –

the breakfast, the music, your back. Even the coffee.

Please, don’t stop humming: You are mine, you are mine.

 

Hanan Issa is a mixed-race poet from Wales. She has been featured on both ITV Wales and BBC Radio Wales and worked in partnership with National Museum Wales, Artes Mundi, Swansea Fringe, and Seren. Her work has been published in Banat Collective, Sukoon mag, Lumin, Poetry Wales, sister-hood magazine and MuslimGirl.com., and by Hedgehog Press and Parthian. Her winning monologue was featured at Bush Theatre’s Hijabi Monologues. She is the co-founder of Cardiff’s first BAME open mic series ‘Where I’m Coming From’. Her debut poetry pamphlet My Body Can House Two Hearts will be published by BurningEye Books in October 2019. Her poem ‘Fairouz and French Toast’ appeared in Poetry Wales Volume 54 Number 3.

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no. 5

When I Was Still a Poet

by Tishani Doshi

 

When I was still a poet

I used to dream of rivers.

Flowers had names and

purpose. Small birds

the shape of scars

made nests in braziers

of sky. Now that I

have given up,

afternoons dry

as raisin skins scrub

by. Thieves approach.

Dogs bark. Love springs

from dirt like carrots.

 

‘When I Was Still a Poet’ by Tishani Doshi first appeared in Poetry Wales Volume 52 Number 3 from her collection Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods (Bloodaxe Books). Tishani Doshi is an award-winning poet, novelist and dancer. She has published five books of fiction and poetry. Her most recent book is The Adulterous Citizen (poems, stories, essays). Since 2001 she has worked with the Chandralekha dance troupe. She lives on a beach in Tamil Nadu.

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The ten poems were selected by Nia Davies, editor of Poetry Wales (2014-19). Nia Davies is a poet and PhD candidate at Salford University where she is undertaking practice-based research into poetry and ritual. She has co-curated and participated in several transcultural collaborations, projects and events and her work has been widely translated. Her most recent publications are All fours (Bloodaxe Books, 2017), England (Crater, 2017) and Interversions (Poetrywala, 2018), which documents her collaboration with Kannada poet Mamta Sagar.

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