The incense(d) heart

This exquisite collection of poems from Palestinian-Canadian Maha Zimmo presents the reader with jewelled vignettes from Zimmo’s lived experiences of relationships under conditions of diaspora, misogyny, and challenges to and of faith. The politics of friendships, lovers, and bodies are sinuously interwoven with fragrant imagery symbolizing the continuity of family history.As much as this collection is an homage to love, survival, and enduring faith and connection, it is also a fierce indictment of racism, toxic relationships, sexist misogyny, the misappropriation of Islam, and the wounds that such oppressions leave upon the bodies, spirits, and an entire people.The beautiful imagery of these poems does not conceal the piercing insights that lie like thorns in each delectable verse.