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Pilgrim Bell
Pilgrim Bell: Poems | Kaveh Akbar
2 posts | 2 read
Kaveh Akbar’s exquisite, highly anticipated follow-up to Calling a Wolf a Wolf With formal virtuosity and ruthless precision, Kaveh Akbar’s second collection takes its readers on a spiritual journey of disavowal, fiercely attendant to the presence of divinity where artifacts of self and belonging have been shed. How does one recover from addiction without destroying the self-as-addict? And if living justly in a nation that would see them erased is, too, a kind of self-destruction, what does one do with the body’s question, “what now shall I repair?” Here, Akbar responds with prayer as an act of devotion to dissonance—the infinite void of a loved one’s absence, the indulgence of austerity, making a life as a Muslim in an Islamophobic nation—teasing the sacred out of silence and stillness. Richly crafted and generous, Pilgrim Bell’s linguistic rigor is tuned to the register of this moment and any moment. As the swinging soul crashes into its limits, against the atrocities of the American empire, and through a profoundly human capacity for cruelty and grace, these brilliant poems dare to exist in the empty space where song lives—resonant, revelatory, and holy.
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review
quietlycuriouskate
Pilgrim Bell: Poems | Kaveh Akbar
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Mehso-so

Been pondering how to review this. I enjoyed his previous collection (tagged 👇) but this one? Not so much.
Written by a practising Muslim living in an Islamophobic culture, and a recovered addict (thus no stranger to self-annihilation/grandiosity) I ended up concluding that a long conversation with him about the themes and ideas behind the poetry would be fascinating. But the poems themselves? Sadly for the most part I found them baffling. 😕

quietlycuriouskate His previous collection 10mo
34 likes1 comment
review
Thndrstd
Pilgrim Bell: Poems | Kaveh Akbar
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Pickpick

Akbar's deeply spiritual poems often strike beautiful chords. As a Muslim in America, Akbar and his spiritual beliefs find resonance and challenge in this country. Many of the poems ask the powerful questions Why and How in the midst of his spiritual searching. While he occasionally succumbs to verbal gymnastics or clunky metaphors, Akbar has a powerful and important poetic voice.