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Saleem Abdal-Khaaliq’s poetic voice runs the gamut from ironic anger to bemused awareness as he takes aim, among other things, at U.S. policies towards non-European immigrants, at the bittersweet emotions and insights evoked by song, at the melancholy motivations of an abandoned soul.
But more than anything, he aims at complacency, at the easy acceptance of a reality that is not quite real, even as he appeals to us to acknowledge and honor our better selves--especially when it comes to our children.
The effect is not unlike that experienced by people who put on a pair of glasses for the first time. The world is the same yet richer, more sharply defined, as nuances often hidden reveal themselves.
—Ellis Cose, author of The Rage of a Privileged Class, The End of Anger, and numerous other books. .
Saleem is a poet to watch. His work takes
the reader inward, shifting perspective and providing new angles and paradigms. In poems such as, "CenterStage," he turns the gaze of performance onto that of the audience and interrogates our responses and all that we bring to the work we observe. This is appropriate and necessary for the times in which we live; we will all benefit from taking the spiritual, intellectual and philosophical journeys Khaaliq's poetry asks for us to take.
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-- Jacqueline Jones LaMon, President, Cave Canem, author of Last Seen and Professor of English at Adelphi University
Where words touch minds
All writing is work, especially when words captivate, inspire or lead to a clearer understanding. Like songs that touch our hearts words mean to touch our minds
