Firesmoke

Sheniz Janmohamed's second collection continues the poet's journey, tracing the inception and annihilation of sacred fire. In a series of highly evocative, personal poems, Firesmoke explores the meaning of truth and the self, finding them both in form and emptiness. In her unorthodox, broadminded quest for understanding, Sheniz evokes the teachings of Sufism, acknowledges the restorative power of the Mother Goddess and honours the alchemy of nature. Life and death do not exist without each other, just as fire produces both ash and smoke, one falling to the ground, the other rising into space.

"Wondrously impactful Firesmoke, evinces a rare poetic genius in capturing oppositional impulses in Nature and seamlessly sutures form with content to provoke the reader to journey with the poet to boundless territories that are at once undergirded in the Natural world and manifest in the worlds of our imagination. Thus Life and Death, Loss and Victory, Fire and Water -- all become part of the poet's lexicon, which she has developed through an impressive imagism: the crow, rivulets, the sari, Goddess Durga, are all a part of her linguascape and each signifies a certain ideology or philosophy. Sheniz has ascended from her first collection of poetry Bleeding Light and yet that signature spark of passion continues to assert itself through the new collection. Felicitous, forceful, feminist and fecund, Sheniz is a powerful voice with a refreshing resonance among the best new Canadian voices. Her poems espouse a system of love-based faith which celebrates life and revival in the midst of death and decay, and presents a Sufism that looks back and races forward in the age of instant communication."
--Julie Mehta, academic and author of Dance of Life: The Mythology, History and Politics of Cambodian Culture