Things My Grandmother Said

“Things My Grandmother Said is an elaborate altar to those ‘necessary beings / who . . . keep on cradling you, unseen.’ It’s also a set of variations on themes at once domestic and cosmic, as the figures of (grand)mother, memory, language, and poetry merge. The variegated labyrinth through which this remarkable poet leads us is embellished not only by his technical virtuosity but also by his compassion, curiosity, and candor.” —Rachel Hadas, author of Ghost Guest

“A tour de force. . . . Formally dazzling. . . Majmudar pay[s] homage to the women he admires, from his grandmother, mother, wife, and daughter, to Wonder Woman, Hindu goddesses, poet friends, and a nurse in a kill zone. Couplets such as ‘Time is a circle I can put to use: / a wheel to roll things back, a crown, a noose,’ butt up against the sagacity of his grandmother, whose old-country pronouncements are a highlight: ‘Sure, the Ganga is holy, / but who told you to drink from it?’” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Majmudar celebrates the eternal feminine in this collection of sharp-witted and playfully humorous poems dedicated to his mother, sister, wife, and daughter. Majmudar invokes his grandmother through a series of amusing quips (‘India invented recycling, we called it karma, / but trash now is trash later’), refreshing conversions of familiar words into surprising verbs (‘Mother us our terror. Enwoman us our wonder’), and profound reflections on inevitable loss and eventual death (‘ring finger withered in the ring— / so soon to grow, too soon to grieve’).” —Diego Báez, Booklist