I Who Have Always Felt Words: Poems

In "I Who Have Always Felt Words" Pushcart Prize-nominated poet Shams Alkamil gives a platform to the weight of silence. This collection pays homage to the violent and healing experiences Muslim womanhood, the ties that bind the Sudanese diaspora, the oscillation of religious dissonance, and the ongoing genocide in Sudan.

Inspired from her own life and the lives of generations before her, Alkamil wrestles with violence, doubt, love, patriarchy, and religious subservience – asking: When are words enough, and when do they fall short?

Moving fluidly across time and memory, "I Who Have Always Felt Words" considers imagined futures and remembered pasts: one where Sudan was never occupied, and one that begins with a namesake:

[Then write a poem about yourself.]
[Make it scorch our eyes, or we’ll strip your name.]