How the stone found Its voice

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Moniza Alvi's title sequence How The Stone Found Its Voice is a series of poems inspired by creation myths. Begun in the wake of the tragedy of 9/11, they are imbued with the dark spirit of that time, with titles including 'How The World Split In Two', 'How The Answers Got Their Questions' and 'How The Countries Slipped Away'. These are followed by poems in which Moniza Alvi takes a more autobiographical approach to racial conflict and the split between East and West, and by The Return of My Wife' a continuation of a sequence from her earlier book Carrying My Wife. Versions of the French poet Jules Supervielle (1884-1960) with their Second World War background and exploration of personal fragility provide a linking thread. How the Stone Found Its Voice is a varied collection with echoes across its different sections, all equally vital to the whole.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• How the World Split in Two (p. 9)
• How the Countries Slipped Away (p. 10)
• How the Answers Got Their Questions (p. 11)
• How the City Lost Its Colour (p. 12)
• How the Animals Tried on Our Clothes (p. 13)
• How the Sky Got a Hole In It (p. 14)
• How the Words Feared the Mouth (p. 15)
• How a Long Way Off Rolled Itself Up (p. 16)
• How the Children Were Born (p. 17)
• How Thought Accompanied the Traveller (p. 18)
• How Yesterday Joined Today and Tomorrow (p. 19)
• How the Stone Found Its Voice (p. 20)
• Half-and-Half (p. 22)
• The Suits (p. 23)
• Ghosts (p. 24)
• Spit (p. 25)
• English Roses (p. 26)
• So Much Goes On (p. 27)
• England (p. 28)
• Rural Scene (p. 29)
• Alamgir Hashmi's Camel (p. 30)
• Shift (p. 32)
• For My Daughter (p. 33)
• Homesick for the Earth (p. 35)
• Whisper in Agony (p. 36)
• Movement (p. 37)
• Besieged (p. 38)
• Riderless Horses (p. 38)
• School Closure (p. 41)
• A Turn of the Screw (p. 42)
• Colposcopy (p. 43)
• Picnic (p. 45)
• The Thieves (p. 46)
• Spanish Birdsong (p. 47)
• Campello Dawn (p. 49)
• Spanish Sunrise (p. 50)
• My Father Has Always Loved Marmalade (p. 51)
• My Wife's Return (p. 52)
• Her Future (p. 53)
• My Wife Had Her Hands Full (p. 54)
• Troubled (p. 55)
• That's What I Mean (p. 56)
• An April Walk (p. 57)
• Doors (p. 58)
• My Wife's Stoniness (p. 59)
• After Escher (p. 60)
• Castaway (p. 61)
• Night Visitor (p. 62)
• The Photographed Hands (p. 63)
• The Child on the Stairs (p. 64)