{"product_id":"whale-aria-9781954245686","title":"Whale Aria","description":"\"For seasons I was faceless \/\/ trying to swallow constellations, \/ to roll a star-map on my tongue,\" recounts Rajiv Mohabir's speaker in \"Boy with Baleen for Teeth.\" As formally visionary and acoustically attuned as ever, Mohabir has composed an interspecies opera in \u003ci\u003eWhale Aria\u003c\/i\u003e. This collection examines the humpback whale as a zoomorphic analog of the queer, brown, migratory speaker breaching these pages; just as a person navigates postcolonial queerness across geopolitical boundaries, traveling from India to Guyana to London to New York to Honolulu, these singular cetaceans wander through disparate waters. Undersea, whales call to one another through their marine music, and, using the documented structure of humpback vocalizations, Mohabir translates the syntax of their songs into poetry. In our search for meaning, in our call and response, kinship resonates; \"the echo is amniotic.\" \"Once you immerse yourself in unending strains \/ the tones will haunt you: \/\/ ghosts spouting sohars you've called \/ since childhood.\" Fluid and inexorable as the ocean, \u003ci\u003eWhale Aria\u003c\/i\u003e articulates the confluence of ecological fate and human history. In \"Why Whales Are Back in New York City,\" Mohabir notes the coincidence of current events: humpback migration returns to Queens for the first time in a century while the state expedites deportations of undocumented people in the same burrough. The language shared by human and marine creatures in these poems, however, promise that the tides will turn. \"Our songs will pierce the dark \/ fathoms,\" Mohabir underscores the eternity of water. \"Behold the miracle: \/\/ what was once lost \/ now leaps before you.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Four Way Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/15\/2023\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781954245686\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 116","brand":"Rajiv Mohabir","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43075575742645,"sku":"9781954245686","price":15.26,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_1ebcf843-090f-4c2f-b3b3-d32a45d3f210.jpg?v=1691469032","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/whale-aria-9781954245686","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}