Above: Si-o-se pul Bridge, Isfahan
My latest poetry collection is Beautiful English (Dreich Books, 2021).
Reimagining the English language from the point of view of Persian and other languages that Gould has translated from, Beautiful English defamiliarizes familiar poetic forms in order to move away from the notion of one correct English. The poems turn to the cultures and histories of Iran, Palestine, Syria, Chechnya, and Armenia to grapple with new ways of defining the self through language and in its encounter with others. Poems from this collection have appeared in Oxford Poetry, Poetry New Zealand, and Another Chicago Magazine.
PRE-PUBLICATION REVIEWS:
“These beautifully articulated pieces come to me as elegies, their sustained poignance pronounced in a language that transcends the very walls around which they seemed to have been crafted… [The poems are] hung up like frescoes made from stolen limestone in the manner of Palestinian workers waiting out the dawn so they could build to perpetuate their own occupation. The language employed in the poems is the language of longing that follows different patterns in breaking lines. I was touched by how much the narrator sees as well as by how much is held back.”
— Sabyasachi (Sachi) Nag, author of Bloodlines (2006) and Could You Please, Please Stop Singing? (2016)
“In these scrupulously observed yet passionate poems, Rebecca Ruth Gould demonstrates how love—self-possessed and stubborn—transcends the bounds of language, culture and state repression. Gould is a real poet and a real find. Cogent and memorable, her poems have a rare power to move the reader.”
— David Cooke, The High Window
“Rebecca Ruth Gould’s poems have the power to penetrate that ‘veil’ which separates the physical from the spiritual. Their words transcend the reader spiritually into ecstatic realms of reality. They bestow brief glimpses through that ever-frustrating ‘veil’ of physicality which binds us to our lower natures and earthly limitations.”
–Michael Hathaway, Chiron Review
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My first poetry collection was Cityscapes (2019). It can be purchased here in the US and the UK. You can read more about the book in Third Wednesday: A Quarterly Journal of Literary and Visual Arts.
Overview: “Traversing the urban geographies of the Middle East, South Asia, and Europe, Cityscapes offers searing and intimate portraits of Damascus, Yerevan, Hyderabad, Delhi, Isfahan, and many other cities through the lens of war, peace, love, and despair. The collection opens with poems about the cosmos, before moving to earthly topographies, and concludes in a series of still lives chronicling urban spaces. Gould combines the insight of a long-time resident of the geographies she describes with a poetic gift for generalizing her personal experience.”
SPECIAL FEATURES: Includes original photography of Palestine (Gaza and the West Bank), India, and Armenia by Kate Gould.
READ MORE: Poems in this collection have previously appeared in Glass: A Journal of Poetry, South Bank Poetry, Chiron Review, Dream Noir, TIMBER, The Healing Muse, Ink, Sweat & Tears, and Otoliths.
I read 4 poems from Cityscapes at the Boco de Oro Festival (2021):
POEMS IN OTHER PLACES
My poems have been featured on Poethead (a website showcasing the work of woman poets). My profile on Poets & Writers is here.
2019 “Bird on a Branch,” Ink, Sweat, & Tears
Some older poems are listed below, with recordings where available.
POEMS IN THE VOICES OF OTHERS
2018 “Mrs. Ramsey,” Waves: A Confluence of Women’s Voices (New York; V. Woolf’s To the Lighthouse).
2014 “For Walter Benjamin, Addressing Hamlet’s Skull,” Descant Magazine (166): 219.
2014 “Walt Whitman’s Longing,” The Feminist Wire.
2012 “James Ramsey,” Redactions: Poetry, Poetics & Prose 15 (1): 20 (V. Woolf’s To the Lighthouse).
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POEMS OF PLACES & OBJECTS
2018 “Yerevan in Winter,” Soliloquies Anthology 22(2): 42. Reprint in Isacoustic.
2018 “A Pagan in Islamic Egypt,” Helen Literary Magazine 9 (Fall).
2018 “Portland, City of Peace,” The Healing Muse (Center for Bioethics & Humanities, SUNY)
2018 “Grocery Shopping,” The Coil (Alternating Current Press).
* Finalist, 2017 Luminaire Award for Best Poetry
2017 “An Old Tree on the Road to London,” South Bank Poetry 26 (Spring 2017): 10.
2017 “Intimating Immortality at Şəhidlər Xiyabanı, Baku,” South Bank Poetry 26 (Spring 2017): 30.
2017 “Arches of Isfahan,” South Bank Poetry 26 (Spring 2017): 32.
2017 “Damascus in the Month of Ramadan,” Minor literature[s].
2016 “Poems of Place,” (poem series) Empty Mirror.
