The Flirtation of Girls / Ghazal el-Banat by Sara M Saleh
“I think of first look between mother and newborn:
the difference between a life of heaven
and a life of hell. Nobody ever thinks of mothers.
What the Greek gods tell of their immortality,
I believe about loneliness.”
~ ‘Fi Mahattet Masr’
Following the recent release of her debut novel, Songs for the Dead and the Living (2023), The Flirtation of Girls / Ghazal el-Banat (2023) is Sara M Saleh’s powerful debut collection of poetry. The award-winning human rights lawyer is no stranger across the Australian poetry and literary scene – she is the first (and so far, only) poet to be awarded both the Peter Porter Poetry Prize, 2021 and the Judith Wright Poetry Prize (2020). Daughter of Palestinian, Lebanese and Egyptian migrants, her writing on Arab Australian experiences and culture has been published widely.
In this deeply personal and political collection, Saleh explores the complex and wide-reaching experiences of three generations of her family, Arab Australian Muslim women, moving between worlds. Divided into three parts – forgotten girls, flirty girls and girls who live forever – Saleh weaves her experiences with the history of her home countries. In doing so, she reminds us starkly that the past is not as distant as some would like it to be:
“You want to say inside you is a long line of abandoned
daughters, a swarm of fleas, and a hunger for this door;
inside your hunger a rage to scorch this colony’s fantasy. Instead
you say nothing. To find yourself is to become more door.”
~ ‘broken ghazal for broken door’
While written and developed as a collection before the events of October 7, 2023, reading Saleh’s collection now feels even more pertinent, serving as a sharp reminder that for Palestinians and their families across the world their collective grief has been building for decades. Some of these poems could have been written in direct response to what we have been witnessing these past months, especially the poem ‘Live from Gaza’, which speaks to the often misleading ways the media grapple for control of the narrative:
“funeral these headlines
their insidious &
the facts
the theatricality of chaos”
The second part of the collection focuses on female connection and relationships, and the joy and strength to be found there, as in ‘The (Not So) Secret Life of 3arab Girls: Our Raqs Is Sharqi (An Intermittent Ghazal), which celebrates the joy of dancing (raqs sharqi being a classical Egyptian style of belly dance):
“Mothers and daughters and sisters and beloveds, slide on over, and slide it
good. Give thanks to the Divine as we revive the sacred raqs, raqs sharqi.”
One of the standouts from the collection for me is ‘Woman crying uncontrollably in the next stall responds’, Saleh’s response to Kim Addonizio’s ever-popular poem, where Saleh viscerally breaks down the pain of a broken heart and the tangible experiences that often make up trying to make it through, ending with the cutting line:
“I hear you thank you for seeing me I want to believe you when you say joy is coming.”
Saleh uses a range of formats to deliver vital messages and narratives in her poems with skill. In an interview with Her Canberra, Saleh advises, “Poems are so bare – nothing is hidden, down to a phrase, a word, a comma on the page (or lack thereof)…there is little room for dishonesty.” The authenticity of her words reaches straight into your chest throughout the collection. Saleh is not interested in offering us comfort. The displacement of identity, grief, generational trauma and loss are themes that strike throughout the collection, alongside moments of love and joy.
Saleh powerfully uses vivid imagery to show us her past and present, and a world that we cannot – and should not – look away from. Now more than ever.
“Memory is our best line of defence in a world that promises oblivion. Like fireflies, memories light up the different, dark corners of our lives and disappear.”
~ ‘The Day Home Didn’t Disappear’
Elaine Chennatt is a writer, educator and psychology student currently residing in nipaluna. She has a special interest in bibliotherapy (how we use literature to make sense of our lives) and is endlessly curious about the creative philosophies of others. She lives with her husband and two bossy dachshunds on the not-so-sunny side of the river (IYKYK). Find her online at wordswithelaine.com
