Somewhere Else.

Somewhere Else by Matthew Shenoda Coffee House Press, April 2005 $14, ISBN 1-566-89173-6

Matthew Shenoda is a community poet. His poems are addressed to all of us, regardless of ethnicity or creed. It feels shamefully rare now to find poems like these--each stanza is a set of open arms to the world. In Somewhere Else, Shenoda's first book, he weaves both contemporary and ancient language around the historical context of his own familial and cultural experience, holding it precious as "one breath / living for that single moment / where voices congregate / pitching into the unknown." The poet's lexicon is refreshingly rich and varied borrowing from several cultures.

Shenoda refers to himself as a "Coptic poet"--Coptic language is the last of the colloquial languages spoken and written by Egyptians (before Arabic), which was influenced by the Greek language and alphabet around 200 B.C.

Shenoda leads the reader on a journey that is at times mythic and often rebellious---he recounts his grandmother's proverbs in the same breath as rousing a cry against police brutality. The text is sectioned into two parts: "Transparent Ancestry" and "Living Ancient"; and both parts are self-aware of the poet's intention--to illustrate the struggle of cultural duality. The opening poem in the first section is an image of the poet in a "New Cairo" where he stands overlooking history while reminding himself not to forget his past. This section then travels back in time to reveal his ancestral history.

The second half of the text snaps back to the poet's present. The last poem, "Language" is a declaration for "...the grand tongue of humanity ...," a call for us all to speak against current injustices and to make a safe way for forthcoming generations.

--Reviewed by Tonya C. Hegamin Tonya C. Hegamin is the author of Most Loved in All the World and M+O 4EVR, both forthcoming from Houghton Mifflin Company.