Nayyirah Waheed has created new ground in poetry which is an achievement and a movement of significance.
Salt. published in 2013 with Creativespace Independent Publishing Platform (acquired by Amazon about six years ago) has been an international success and is said to be studied in schools.
Waheed also posts her work on Instagram.
Currently in Australia paperback copies are largely unavailable, except through Amazon of course.
In book format it runs to more than 200 pages, with a lot of blank space within that bulk.
Self-publishing avoids the editorial process. Nevertheless Waheed has still had to suffer rejection and criticism; as anyone who makes their work public does.
She says that she wrote to and for people of colour. This is a rising refrain from those who feel marginalised. But I would say that poetry is larger than that, and art's endeavour is to reach out to a common humanity. To stay within the constraints of a single culture is not what it does. Art is able to simultaneously build newness within a culture as it questions and dismantles accepted cultural norms.
Salt stings, enhances flavour, and it heals. It is an appropriate title for this body of work.
Not all the pages of this book contain poems.
where
you are
is not
who
you are.
- circumstance
This appears on page 22. It is not a poem. It is an aphorism; a clever and relevant aphorism.
even the small poems mean something. they are often
whales in the bodies of tiny fish.
She is right about this which appears on page 25. While again not a poem, it is a playful something to ponder.
There is no reason why a book of poetry cannot contain material other than poems.
Poems like this one on page 19 testify to her recognition that life is poetry and her ability to transcribe the poetic into words.
when your mother unbirths you
because
she smells swans in your skin
it feels like
she is
singing in salt.
and
her eyes carve you out of her body.
you
are a dream
undreamt.
and
this is a holocaust
that
winter birds
will
never know.
–– swans
Within this body of work there is so much unexpected beauty. Like salt, poetry heals.
Waheed has created a community of poetry. May she continue to grow in her abilities with language and observation. She has broken the rules, and she needs to keep doing that.
