Anne Tammel's Endless: A Literary Passion —reviewed by Rehan Qayoom

In Endless: A Literate Passion, Anne Tammel has offered poems to the world that heal

through their complex evocative consonantal process. The poems are intricately woven and
depict unique experiences perfectly matched to individual words that conjure and elucidate in ways that tie them to every reader’s own subjective experiences with astonishing clarity and depth:

a crisp pear, fluer
de sel buerre, truffle,
pate, indigo herbs –
milkweed honey,
newly ripened figs – pure
saffron desire…

(‘Moon an Open Book’).

Vivid and visual, Tammel looks past the mortal life in compliance with Dante’s command in ‘Dante and the Silk Journal’. These poems are deeply immured in the experiences of great writers and artists of the past; they skilfully inhabit spaces that resonate with Genius Loci processing into the soul almost alchemically with:

unmentionable
words, as if
we could
ever
touch those
dreams.

(‘Proliferate Ashes’).

It is not one of those books that can be read just the once or casually, rather it is to be kept
treasured, to hand and to keep coming back to for emotional connection and reference points to live by as different poems would appeal to different times and in different situations.

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Rehan Qayoom is a poet, editor and translator educated at Birkbeck College, University of London. He has featured in numerous literary publications and performed his work internationally. He has published two books of poetry.

Fragments, not a Meal | by Rehan Qayoom

Who thinks mostly of his observance of breathing than his actual breathing? Takes a glimpse 
at her photograph and then quickly puts it away. Stuck with a hasp of deadlier gloom than 
death – Can it bring delight?


I found nowhere to sit and read 
Your chapter on the life of Bede
The ground of Oxford Street reveals
What deeds of daring do go on beneath those heels
Laziness is white and pretty
London, you mock-savage city
Had we met in a way more real
Would we have felt what we feel?
So off to bed and up at 9!
I'll dream all night that you were mine
Or off to kip to wake at 10!
Begin another day - Again!


If it's true we're born in sin
Open yourself and let me in!


Obliged to live his life in limbo
The forlorn poet
Forgot he was sane
So wrote in gibberish across the window-pane


O what enchanting eyes you have
How magical a smile
Your ruddy hair sets hearts on fire
Oh your funky drunky style
Just hold my hand - Look in my eyes - Say nothing all the while
You will never not be dearer - To me nearer nearer setting
Roses all aflame
For the vision’s ever clearer – It’s a chilly wind that blows!
Love me as I am –

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Rehan Qayoom is a poet, editor and translator from London.  He writes poetry in both English and Urdu and his work has featured in numerous literary publications and anthologies.  He is also available for interviews.

Africa Come Back: a dirge after the slogan of the African socialist democrats— a poem by Rehan Qayoom

Come, I’ve heard the surge of your drums

Come, my heart beats lasciviously

            ‘Africa come back’

Come, I’ve raised my face out from the dust

Come, I’ve peeled off the pellicle of sorrow from my eyes

Come, I’ve snatched away my arms from the grip of pain

Come, I’ve wrenched apart the hasp of gloom

            ‘Africa come back’

The shackle’s clasps have made the mace too much to bear

So I’ve fashioned a mould by ripping the strap round my neck

            ‘Africa come back’

The bear’s death-eyes blaze in every lair

Enemy blood has reddened the negritude of night

            ‘Africa come back’

The ground is pirouetting with me Africa

Rivers throbbing to the rhythm pouring out of the woods

I am Africa, your stature mirrors mine

I am you; my gait is the gait of your lions

‘Africa come back’

Come stride like your lions

            ‘Africa come back’

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Rehan Qayoom is a poet, editor and translator from London.  He write poetry in both English and Urdu and his works have appeared in numerous literary publications and anthologies. You can find more of his work at http://www.rehanqayoompoet.blogspot.com/