My Body Can House Two Hearts

MY BODY CAN HOUSE TWO HEARTS skips across the fragile boundaries of history, culture, relationships, and language. It explores the transitory balance of belonging by tying threads between different places and ideas not often compared. Traverse the poet’s perception of her Welsh and Iraqi heritage, her positioning as a woman of colour, and the nuances of feminist action. My Body Can House Two Hearts is a celebration of women’s redemptive interdependency and the rejection of patriarchal power.

As the opening poem reveals, Hanan Issa has a vantage point that enables her to see both near and far. It lets her draw the links betwee Hen Wlad fy Nhadau and Baghdad, Fallujah and Aberfan. Reading on from these first lines we hear how the Cymraeg and Arabic ‘ch’ chime together, and see how Edwards is Daqneesh’s brother, and how one body can house two hearts.

This unique collection shows that Welsh, Arabic and English flow side by side and sometimes share the same waters. It contains verses that bring flamenco, ballet and bhangra to a common dance floor. It reminds us that ‘love’s a lake and the world is thirsty’.