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Kaleem Hawa

Kaleem Hawa has written about art, film, and literature for the New York Review of Books, The Nation, and Artforum, among others.



Articles Available Online


Hating it Lush: On Tel Aviv

Essay

May 2023

Kaleem Hawa

Essay

May 2023

I   They made the desert bloom, tall sparkling towers and clean Bauhaus lines, and apple-ring acacias, and teal blue shuttle buses, and stock...

Poetry

Issue No. 28

Three poems from issue 28

Sarah Barnsley

Valzhyna Mort

Kaleem Hawa

Poetry

Issue No. 28

Valzhyna Mort, ‘Music for Girl’s Voice and Bison’   Sarah Barnsley, ‘Virginia Woolf Has Fallen Over’   Kaleem Hawa,...

Stone   Stone heart Stone deep Stone minded Turn to Stone Stoned Stone I turn to stone when I’m argumentative I turn to stone when I turn chaotic My chaos is a bag of stones I turn to stone when he is on fire I will coat this in stones  I turn   I stone                I roll my stone              I palm my stone         I serve my stone   The stage has been set This set has been staged This set has been stoned by the stony-hearted I am of the stony-hearted I am heart-stone I think the words I am looking for are ‘spite’ and ‘malice’ No, you are stone-cold You are the breaker of stones You, stonecutter You cut the head of my stone, but not my heart Try to touch this Touchstone Touch the touchstone of my want   Of my feast        Of my safety               Of my dark               Of my light             Of my truth   Of my false                 Of my tierce                Of my salt                   Of my sweet   Your slaughter is in flame and slaughter is close to water, is close to laughter, is close to aught I ought to be real here I ought to think again I ought to stammer this home in stones Splint in stones Sprint in stones Glint in stones, but not gravel, not grovel Not pebbled in fear Here’s an interesting question I mean the universe of language is designed to be a stone’s throw from possible, right? A stone’s throw from able Wait Didn’t Abel stone Cain? Didn’t Abel kill his brother? They were family They were blood Use your words Keep your heart stony Create a mouth from your eye, an eye from your mouth  Use your stone heart has a harness Use your eye as a hand  All of you will have to leave something to someone     Gasp   Step into This suffering It is a stroke away from Light It is a stroke away from Horror This claim Is a forward regime Step into This smouldering Step into The smoudler Carry Relief Carry Resistance Carry Tragedy Carry This tragedy Step into The gash Step into His hubris This is not

Contributor

November 2019

Kaleem Hawa

Contributor

November 2019

Kaleem Hawa has written about art, film, and literature for the New York Review of Books, The Nation, and...

after Mahmoud Darwish    Why is a boy an exclamation,  and why are his dead a period?,  why do his sinews tighten when he sees  a Palestinian body? Does his vision narrow  because of their flight,  or because their world is raining with salt?  Why is a boy with a gun different  from a boy with a jail cell?,  if the tools of rupture are our arms for  repurposing the body, and the arms of  the state are our means of repurposing the male,  are we finally useful and breathing and nervous…?  Does the white mean Night’s arrival?,  or does night signal the white’s escape?,  and when that white city boy becomes  a White City man,  does the hate in his heart subside?,  or does it become an ellipses,  a Bauhaus history of stories started  and left unfinished 
You Arrive at A White Checkpoint and Emerge Unscathed

Prize Entry

November 2019

Kaleem Hawa


READ NEXT

poetry

September 2012

Mainline Rail

Eleanor Rees

poetry

September 2012

Back-to-backs, some of the last, and always just below the view   a sunken tide of regular sound west...

feature

December 2012

Confessions of an Agoraphobic Victim

Dylan Trigg

feature

December 2012

The title of my essay has been stolen from another essay written in 1919.[1] In this older work, the...

fiction

Issue No. 14

Beetle

Joanna Kavenna

fiction

Issue No. 14

SKITAFLIT, DAY 49   704 Dawn Breaks above the grey-dusted grey-fronted houses 903 Well the office is looking just...

 

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