Page 39 - February 2021
P. 39
J A C K F O L E Y
O N
F I S H B O N E
L I T E R A T U R E
Fish bones: something dead issuing in
something alive. The various comments all
center on the newness of the form and its
considerable effectiveness. Shajil has
created a new form for lyricism—a form that
combines various modes of the visual and
the auditory intersecting in a way that
honors multiplicity, possibility, but which
issues in a single emotion: happy, sad, love.
It’s great to hear the poet’s voice speak these
pieces even as we see the various different
elements that he chooses. We have a sense
that other arrangements might be possible
even as we hear the poet choosing this
arrangement. In a short space, many
potentially contradictory elements emerge
and speak to each other. It’s a hymn to the
radical openness of the mind
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litterateur February 2021
