Taqsim - Softcover

Zaid Shlah

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1897181086 ISBN 13: 9781897181089

Publisher: Frontenac House, 2006

Synopsis

A taqsim is an improvisational Middle Eastern medley in which the musician moves between formal musical structure and free-flowing improvisation. In Taqsim Zaid Shlah writes within the formal structure of the lyric, but incorporates an innovative lyricism that agitates between his Iraqi and Canadian heritage: a history of music, food, war and love in a space as wide as the mountains and prairies of his native Alberta to as far away as the land between the two rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates.

About this title

About the Author

A native Calgarian, Zaid now resides in California, with his wife Randa. He obtained his MA in English from San Francisco State University. His poetry has appeared in literary magazines and journals in both Canada and the U.S. Most recently he was awarded the American Academy of Poets Award.

Review

Richly lyrical and sensual... --Paul Hoover, 2005

[This book] is a beautiful thing in itself...open it and give Zaid Shlah your ear for a moment. --Richard Harrison, cover reviews

Shlah successfully weaves the stuff of history, familial memories, landscape, even cuisine into his poetry, performing a kind of word jazz that improvises on the blue notes of recent Iraqi history and the rich madrigals of his mother s remembered speech. He riffs on his unique place in the world, the double vision afforded by one who grieves the narrative forced on his countrymen by Bush s fundamentalist Christian warriors, and speculates on the demise of the Western empire, wondering where it is, and how it is a man in such an imperfect fragmented, post-Modern world is to make his stand; and how he can find solace in the family that carries such inestimable baggage. --~ Richard Stevenson, The Danforth Review

Zaid Shlah s Taqsim sings! This book s gripping melancholy and unique resonance in the face of departure and loss is tough and exciting, it tells us to leave the river, leave the grass, leave the gaze....the words rooting in your eyes, leave the sun...its lie, go and be something beautiful. Shlah takes us to the radiance of Arab history, cultures, religions while driving along Highway 22X, South of Calgary, having much less to do with [the] place, than with the story growing inside it. These poems confess and connect us to the turbulent mystery of beauty and the quiet voice of the world. --~ Nathalie Handal

Edition details

• Publisher: Frontenac House
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1897181086
• ISBN 13: 9781897181089
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 93