Bright Felon: Autobiography and Cities

110 Pages·0.619 MB·English

by  Ali, Kazim

Wesleyan Poetry
Kazim Ali
autobiography and cities
Wesleyan University Press
Middletown, Connecticut
Published by
Wesleyan University Press,
Middletown, CT 06459
www.wesleyan.edu/wespress
2009 © Kazim Ali
All rights reserved
Printed in U.S.A.
5 4 3 2 1
Portions of this work have previously
appeared in Narwhal,Xcp: Cross-cultural
Poetics, and Quarter After Eight.
Library of Congress
Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ali, Kazim, 1971–
Bright felon: autobiography and cities /
Kazim Ali.
p. cm.—(Wesleyan poetry)
ISBN 978-0-8195-6916-5 (cloth: alk. paper)
I. Title.
PS3601.L375B75 2009
811’.6—dc22 2009013375
Wesleyan University Press is a member of
the Green Press Initiative. The paper used in
this book meets their minimum requirement
for recycled paper.
This project is supported in part by an award
from the National Endowment for the Arts.
A fragment
of a fair copy would undo our slant meeting,
[. . .]
I approached
as an alias, trachea
without sound, my signature, bright felon.
| Gillian Conoley
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Contents
Acknowledgments | ix
Marble Hill | 1
Carlisle | 7
Beacon | 14
Rhinebeck | 20
Cairo | 28
New York City | 36
Paris | 43
Corsica | 49
Paris | 56
New York City | 62
Buffalo | 68
Washington, DC | 74
Albany | 79
Home | 86
Barcelona (an Epilogue) | 91
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Acknowledgments
Gratitude to Meena Alexander,
brave speaker.
To the kind editorial eye, keen ear for
the phrase, and quick-slashing pen of
Joshua Marie Wilkinson.
To Marco Wilkinson, who saw me
through it.
To my cousins Haider Saeed and Laura
van Alphen, whose friendship I have
always counted on.
I am grateful also to Marilyn Nelson
and the Soul Mountain Retreat (www.
soulmountainretreat.com) for the week
in which the manuscript was finalized,
and to Suzanna Tamminen for her kind
and passionate interest.
And of course, to Jason.
November 2006–April 2007
February 2008–October 2008