October by Nur Turkmani
Across multiple Octobers, Lebanese poet Nur Turkmani explores ideas of memory, love and transformation
“God, make our rage count for something,” reads the last line of Nur Turkmani’s poem Glass for Breakfast, in her debut collection October. It is the simultaneous hope and desperation of this line that seep throughout Turkmani’s collection and call you to hear a voice that grieves and aches, but above all, yells for revolution.
Turkmani writes with intense nostalgia and imagination. Born of a burning longing for Lebanon, the book’s heartland, the poems travel through six Octobers to portray Turkmani’s intimate meditations on the uncertainty of life’s 'beginnings and endings, the people, places, and words,' setting out not only to preserve through memory, but to call us to share this labour of love, reminding us that freedom is not possible alone. Though her main connection is to Lebanon, the poems move across a variety of places, transforming into odes because of the love that infuses them. Poems like To All the Flatmates of Hamra vividly attest to this.
Turkmani's is the kind of writing that is so generous in giving all things life, animating objects and memories with emotion, and finding purpose in what feels stagnant or buried, but is truly resurrectable. As Turkmani utters in To Insist on Joy, 'nothing dies.' A special Hajar Press characteristic, there is also a suggested playlist curated by Turkmani, perfect for connecting with each poem.
