Murmur by Shakiba Hashemi explores the heroic quest of the human soul for truth and enlightenment from the moment the first breath is taken till the last. With the use of mythology and sacred allegories, these poems take the reader from the bowels of darkness to the lost deserts of doubt, in search of the promised land and the mountain tops.
Murmur by Shakiba Hashemi explores the heroic quest of the human soul for truth and enlightenment from the moment the first breath is taken till the last. With the use of mythology and sacred allegories, these poems take the reader from the bowels of darkness to the lost deserts of doubt, in search of the promised land and the mountain tops.
You will find your way out of me one day,
cradled in your amniotic ark;
you will voyage through
this deluge of fluid and foam.
You, little astronaut
hung from your navel cord
floating between worlds, will kick down
my womb’s walls
and claim the space. You,
seahorse turned Pegasus,
unnamed hero, waiting to become.
You will be ripped out of me one day,
your raw flesh heaving in blood,
dripping red footsteps on the ground.
Eyes closed in rapture, with fists clenched,
you will find deliverance, darling,
wrapped in swaddling clothes,
holding your brown-eyed dolls.
You will transcend,
and I will never be this close to you again,
feeling your heartbeats in my core.
You will be cut out of me one day,
like a limb that never belonged.
And not long after you are gone,
I will become merely what you passed through:
a vacant vessel, a poet without a rhyme.
Your life will begin one day,
when I am empty, undone.
Murmur is a collection of fourteen poems, each bringing something fresh to the overall narrative of a search for "truth and enlightenment" as the summary describes. From the first poem to the last, the lines captured me within their grip as I was transported to the world of poetry.
Full of ripe holy allegory, the first poem depicts the absence of light in the beginning and how that affects everything in existence. I felt the last line could be stronger than the abstract "and love" but the rest of the poem makes up for the lacking satisfaction with lines like "no apple to want/no tongue to lick the nectar". I think it's absolutely clever and there is such a melodic flow to the words.
I appreciate the way the poet delves into different subjects, one of my favorite poems from this collection is Thus Spoke My Mother. I love lines like "cradled in your amniotic ark/little astronaut hung from your navel cord," it ties into the creation aspect very well with a personal touch of the topic of the birth mother. I also think Hashemi has a great awareness in the way of splitting lines like in the poem Crossfire, "baptized leaves/float/dragonflies/bite/God is hiding".
The play with format was something I enjoyed, as seen in the breaking up of words in the poem Apocalypse. There is also an attentive use of repetition like in the titular poem Murmur, "I have sinned I have sinned/my alibi is silence/I choke on Hail Mary". Even through these small snippets we can see the haunting beauty of the words put together in these poems. Another one of my favorite poems is Offering, "I cross the Dead Sea/sin-soaked and dry-lipped".
I was sad that the collection ended so soon but I am sure there will be plenty more to come from the poet Shakiba Hashemi and I would like to give my applause and support to the poet, wishing all the best for any future works.
I would recommend this collection to lovers of modern poetry with a free form flow. The poet is unafraid to dive into deep existential topics and approach them with distinctive style and sensitivity. Contemporaries would be poets like Nikita Gill.