"I'm here to tell you whatever you build will be ruined, so make it beautiful."

I read Salt Houses many years ago and was drawn in by the Palestinian experience in the Middle Est. Even there, it is a rootless experience. These poems focus on the need for perseverance. That what you build can be destroyed and yet your return. The building holds a family, and then both are gone. Rubble is all left, but a plant or weed can still grow there. Everything reemergence. I really enjoyed the format. She would have a poem, and the subject-verb mix pulled you into the poem.

Favorite Passages:

“It is not enough

to say love in Arabic.
You must say

be the thing that buries me,”

----

“I do not call them / not even after her father dies / or after the surgery /
or when the city plunges like a heart / & they’re silent back / a gift
we give each other / like only those who know what’s gone is gone can give”

----

“I can’t hear you. I can’t hear you under the missiles.
A plant waits for fire to grow.
A child waits for a siren. It must be a child.
Never a man. Never a man without a child.
There is nothing more terrible
than waiting for the terrible. I promise.
Was the grief worth the poem? No,
but you don’t interrogate a weed
for what it does with wreckage.
For what it’s done to get here.”

---

From Werewolf

Look how our fathers left our
Pick of exits, how there is
Always the wolf that breaks you and the wolf that turns you back.

…
I always think the tanks have left my body
But here’s my pretty
Head, my tongue a sprig of silver, a comet, the bullet
That turns you back

…
I am always swooning at any old light. Little gorge, little magpie. In the darkest dark, I wait for the moon
That turns you back.

---
“It might not happen for a long time,
but one day you run your fingers through the sand again, scoop a fistful out
and pat it into a new floor. You can believe in anything, so why not believe
this will last? The seashell rafter like eyes in the gloaming.
I’m here to tell you the tide will never stop coming in.
I’m here to tell you whatever you build will be ruined, so make it beautiful.”

I was nervous I wouldn’t like this as much as some of her earlier books, but Hala Alyan has done it again. Enchanting, wonderful poetry that I highly recommend.

3.5 stars rounded up. Enjoyed this collection overall, some were more abstract then I like in poetry, but still full of lovely and beautiful language.

5 stars

I adore this poetry collection by Hala Alyan. Her poetry is creative and uses choose-your-own adventures in poetry form to create a winding and connective pattern of themes that coexist and blend together. This is a collection that is so important and represents a Palestinian author who has been forced into a diaspora because of the current war and occupation. I loved it so much, that I bought my own copy immediately after reading and this will be a collection I return again in the future.

Devastating, gorgeous, thought-provoking, personal poetry laid down on paper in original and challenging ways. Alyan's recounting of loss and pain and observances of people and the world are both harsh and alluring; she grapples with exile and the loss of homeland, miscarriage and the death of elders, nostalgia and longing and colonial oppression. Poetry is never just for a single time or place, but this poetry feels even more urgent and crucial to read right now as Palestine is being destroyed in a massive genocide.

Hala Alyan yet again reminds me why she is one of my favorite poets. In each of her collections, I find that her craft is once again re-examined and refined. This collection was no different as she incorporated more experimental structures and even creates a sort-of "choose-your-own-adventure" format for some of the poems. I found this to be her most interactive collection yet and it feels so very intentional considering the overarching theme of disconnection. The disconnections in this book revolve around memory, displacement of Palestinians, nostalgia, finding belonging both with others and within ourselves. It felt like an appeal to the reader to connect with themselves and the world around them as well as to reflect on all the terrible parts of being alive that we are living through and watching unfold through TV or phone screens. For this reason, this is a collection I will return to in the future maybe for preservation of memory, or reflection on the perseverance of Palestinians both in Palestine and in the diaspora. Hopefully, one day I will return to this collection at a time when Palestine will be free.

The Moon That Turns You Back by Hala Alyan was an incredible and emotionally packed collection of poems that was based on the author's memories and experiences. This was an extremely timely read that was touching, heartbreaking, and something that should be read in more than just one sitting. As I am still an early enjoyer of poetry and sometimes find myself struggling a little to find what I enjoy, I couldn't recommend this enough.

Thank you NetGalley (and the author!) for the ARC copy of this book,
Beautiful. The poems travel through so many different themes. Displacement in place, body, mind and soul. Motherhood. Family. Marriage.
The author is a Palestinian woman, who eloquently grapples with her homeland both physically and mental on these pages. As a white American woman, this was important for me to read and understand. Her experience is not something I can truly understand but I can observe and listen and this collection of poems felt like a good way to do that.
Poetry can be difficult for me and while there were poems in here that were exactly that. The overall feel and message of these poems came through the book.

Each sentence in Alyan's poems pack a punch. In several of the poems, she redefines what a sentence or a phrase in a poem can look like. There were poems that made me halt, and dwell on a phrase or two and read the poem over and over (especially "[Political] Dialogue"). Many poems were especially moving because of the settings in which they took place, beautiful but filled with pain, especially in places that are at this very moment being barraged by violence in Gaza, the West Bank, and southern Lebanon. The Moon That Turns You Back was a beautiful capsule of the experience of someone who is the child of immigrants or an immigrant themselves, grappling with the guilt and confusion of having loved ones still "back home." Alyan is unabashed in expressing her emotions and experiences, and sharing stories of what seem to be very close family and friends. My only critique is that I felt some poems felt disjoined by such sharp back to back sentences, each one obviously very moving and powerful, but I was unsure how they worked together.

stunning as always. hala alyan has never disappointed me. gripping, devastating. finished this collection in one sitting.

WEDNESDAYS WITH DENISE: March 20, 2024

Hala Alyan’s The Moon That Turns You Back was published this month by Harper Collins. Alyan is an Palestinian American poet who explores violence, displacement, and loss. She uses a myriad of inventive poetic forms to contain diaspora and resilience in the face of war.

In “Half-Life in Exile,” she writes:

There is nothing more terrible
than waiting for the terrible. I promise.
Was the grief worth the poem? No,
but you don’t interrogate a weed
for what it does with wreckage.
For what it’s done to get here.

For examples of her work, here is a lineated poem “September, a week in” and a fierce prose poem “Habituation” which contains my favorite passage in the book but hasn’t the story already changed because I told it:

https://www.thrushpoetryjournal.com/january-2020-hala-alyan.html

Congratulations, Hala!

The Moon That Turns You Back by Hala Alyan is a beautifully written collection of poetry. The author shared some extremely personal and difficult stories of her life through her amazing poetry. And she also used some unique formats for her poetry. I haven't read Alyan's previous books, but I'll be looking for them now after reading her poetry.

this was such a poignant, raw and anguish palestinian point of you

I didn’t understand all of the poems but I admire the innovation the author bought with their different form of poems. those about palestinian identity, displacement and living outside of palestine were definitely my favourites

but this poetry book is also about motherhood, about immigration, about what it means to be a palestinian, to be an immigrant, to be the victim of modern colonialism

I highly recommend even if the reading experience / comprehension isn’t the easiest

rating: 4⭐️

This is my first poetry collection and I thoroughly enjoyed Hala Alyan’s poems.

Alyan writes beautifully crafted poems in different formats on womanhood, relationships, motherhood, and feelings on home.

Overall the topics were heavy but handled so delicately and I found myself thinking about certain lines for some time. My two favorite poems were Relapse Dream Ending with My Grandmother’s Hand and After Iraq Sweidan.

I look forward to reading her novels next!

Thank you to Netgalley and Ecco for the ARC :)

✨ Review ✨ The Moon That Turns You Back: Poems by Hala Alyan

Thanks to Ecco and #netgalley for the gifted advanced copy/ies of this book!

This collection of poems by Hala Alyan, a Palestinian American writer, is pretty far-ranging in topics. From family to her own miscarriages to life in an immigrant family, these poems stretch throughout her life experiences. A painful sense of dislocation, violence in Palestine and the Middle East, and the irony of the American political landscape thread throughout many of the poems.

Sometimes, I felt like this was a collection of poetry I wasn't smart enough for...like I didn't have the full context I needed to deeply engage.

But the poems I could work my way through and find the deeper meaning were incredible. Here are a couple:

"When they Say Pledge of Allegiance, I Say" highlights her experience in a family of immigrants and their sense of dislocation and tenuous position in the US: "my country is a mouth trying to say pledge and it comes out all salt // my country is a mouth and nobody can pronounce my name // I mean my country forgets my name //I mean my country is always asking for my name // and I'm always saying it twice // spelling it like an address"

"Naturalized" pairs the trials of everyday life with the trauma of war and violence

Despite the sadness and grief that runs through this, it ends on a positive note with the words: "I'm here to tell you the tide will never stop coming in. / I'm here to tell you whatever you build will be ruined, so make it beautiful."

Definitely a solid collection of poetry, and I'm excited to dig in to more of her writing!

Some really interesting stuff here with past and future generations, home and belonging. She also does cool formal stuff with the way poems are constructed. The ghazals were my faves.

A creative collection of poetry spanning from Brooklyn to Beirut, Hala Alyan beautifully depicts the ugly themes of displacement and violence. This is a collection to devour in one sitting, read again over a period of time, and return to often.

As someone who is just beginning to delve into poetry, I do not feel adequately equipped to break down the exquisite writing I found in this collection beyond saying: wow, I really enjoyed this. The creative formatting very engaging and a perfect complement to the shifting narrative and emotions that Alyan lays out. The prose can be very raw and uncomfortable at times; this honesty is an imperative contribution to literature in the current political climate and offers a valuable perspective.

I am convinced Hala Alyan couldn't write a bad book if she tried. I was first introduced to her work through Salt Houses, which was a devastatingly beautiful read. Getting to experience her poetry lets me see where her writing roots grew from. This was a beautiful collection of poetry that made me fall more in love with both this author's work and the genre of poetry itself.

Hala Alyan is a masterful writer. Her poems are evocative and creative and heartwrenching all at once. This collections transports you to beauty and devastation, destruction and survival. I am thankful for more Hala Alyan poems in the world. May everyone read and be transformed. <3

thank you @netgalley and @eccobooks for the early copy! publishing date is March 12, 2024

i will read anything Hala Alyan writes. she is an absolute master with words, her writing destroying my heart and burying into my soul. this collection is breathtaking, moving, all encompassing. it’s a reflection on grief and identity and Palestine and love and displacement

“Be lucky. Try to make it to the morning. Try to find your heart in the newsprint. Please. I’d rather be alive than holy. I don’t have time to write about the soul. There are bodies to count. There’s a man wearing his wedding tuxedo to sleep in case I meet God and there’s a brick of light before each bombing.”

love love love. an absolute must-read