Where the Apple Falls
by Samiya Bashir
Where the Apple Falls resides at the intersections between woman/ female, both human and environmental, and the concepts to which she is often linked (without her consent): death; rebirth; victim; sexual/perverse. Seasons are crucial: from the birth of Spring through Autumn’s final harvest the work suggests a recasting of the farmer; a reclamation of both fall and redemption/ death/ (re)birth on her own terms.
ISBN-10: 0-9656659-7-6
ISBN-13: 978-0-9656659-7-1
Specs: Softcover,
77 pp.
Price: $14.00
Pub. Date: June 2005
Cover art copyright © 2005 by Ruth McFarlane
Cover design: E.M. Corbin
[ Buy online
]
Praise for Where the Apple Falls
Bashir takes a bold step in this poetic compilation of insights into what it is to be a woman in a patriarchal world. She journeys further than the mere questioning of conventional values placed on one half of society by the other; rather she demands power for women to determine our female selves. “I have always been a good American m’atriot…” Bashir writes in “To the Moon,” the inspiring voice battling conformist identity. …Using a variety of writing styles from free verse to Kwansaba (an African-American poetry form), she reminds readers that you don’t have to be loud to be heard. Her voice releases the grasp on the apple, an ancient symbol of the sub-classification of woman. Where the Apple Falls opens up space for new possibilities for all women to step forward and define themselves.
—L.N. Saleh, SABLE, Autumn/Fall 2006
“…three first books by women of color caught my interest in this search for the powerful voices of this moment and our future. Samiya Bashir is one of those voices. …Each poem of Where the Apple Falls is strong; in the collection, Bashir demonstrates not only her power with language, but also her ability to write from a variety of vantage points. …The book transforms itself poem by poem with mastery and control that few poets demonstrate in a first book. …Bashir does not recoil from the conventional poetic tradition, but she does conform it to her vision integrating African myths and contemporary references into her work. Where the Apple Falls is an exciting and ample book.”
—Julie R. Enszer, Sinister Wisdom (No. 70, Spring 2007)
“Samiya Bashir writes bravely and beautifully from the inside out. We are fortunate to have her blazing, graceful poems in this fine first collection.”
—Elizabeth Alexander
“Of all the poems in Where the Apple Falls, not a one is overwrought, pretentious or half-stepping. Each is stunning, smart and real. To read this book is to eat an extraordinary fruit, licking its juices all the way.”
—Cheryl Clarke
“Bashir’s first book of poems is a moving blend of personal narrative and lyric grace. Poems that deal with the legacy of slavery are haunting, such as the intimacy and danger in “Floating Down the Delaware”: “Black skin rots cerulean blue. The/ two bodies were found on Thursday/ night. No wonder I can’t keep track/ of time.” Bashir’s finely crafted lines touch on migration, faith, urban life and the lives of women, never letting their reach slacken.”
—Julia Bloch, Curve magazine, December 2005
“Lesbian poet Samiya Bashir… expand[s] the range of questions American poetry can and should ask. Bashir zooms in on exquisite details—from childhood rituals to her lover’s lips—then her topics explode outward as she grapples with war, violence against women, and the legacy of slavery. A tendency to make lists sometimes dilutes Bashir’s voice, but overall, her writing is precise with rage, intelligence, and tenderness shimmering through.”
—Amanda Davidson, Girlfriends magazine, July 2005
“…There is no denying Bashir’s talent. Confidence shines through her poetry like a beacon, and there is a smartness to her writing that puts all on notice that this is the start of a long career, that she will not be silenced, and that she has a lot to say.”
—H.L. Sudler, www.pageandauthor.com, August 2005
“In her debut collection Where the Apple Falls, Samiya Bashir demands we listen and hear the symphony of stories that ‘sail on the ochre cushion of these moonlit poems.’ In ‘Moon Cycling,’ she writes: ‘Don’t come by my door/ Smellin’ fresh like that/ Sizzling like summer/ Steak medium rare/ I’ll think you are/ My supper.’ But she opens the door and her words and images grab us and never let go. She challenges ideas of edginess, religion, beauty, sexuality and imagination. Bashir’s language is vivid and compelling in lines like ‘Crooked back bowed into the new black moon.’ There’s remarkable womanness, vulnerability, pain and insight in these lines… Where the Apple Falls can at times be a difficult read, as many poems are dense and complex. But here is a new and provocative voice comfortable in the skin of her poems, secure in her poetic vision.”
—Cheryl Boyce Taylor, Black Issues Book Review, Sept/Oct 2005