Rasma Haidri
Whole
Rasma Haidri
Rasma Haidri grew up in Tennessee and makes her home on the arctic seacoast of Norway. She is the author of As If Anything Can Happen (Kelsay, 2017) and three college textbooks. Her writing has appeared in literary journals including Nimrod, Prairie Schooner, Sycamore Review, and Fourth Genre and has been widely anthologized in North America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. She is a current MFA candidate at the University of British Columbia and serves as a reader for the Baltic Residency program. Awards for her work include a Vermont Studio residency, the Southern Women Writers Association emerging writer award in creative non-fiction, the Wisconsin Academy of Arts, Letters & Science poetry award, and a Best of the Net nomination. Visit her at www.rasma.org.
Rasma Haidri
Whole
Not gone, not missed,
no hole in this day, this house,
or me—
seeing your medicine
coupled with mine in a brass leaf,
waiting for us, and morning tea.
Two full cups need
four hands to steady
their brimming:
one holds Darjeeling
and ginger,
the other PG Tips,
milk-sweetened,
steeped in cloves
and cardamom seeds.
I give you a mouthful,
watch you swallow,
like Eve’s first draught—
this is how we flow
between separate bodies—
two cups on one table,
together, and also alone.
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Questions for the author:
What are 2 - 3 books (regardless of genre) that you've read over the last year or less that really blew your hair back?
Jerusalem by Alan Moore ranks as maybe my best read ever. It’s epic but accessible, erudite but earthy, a story of a specific place and of all humankind. I was a bit late to the party for Cloud Atlas, but finally got around to reading it. I love the story behind it, that David Mitchell threw his notes on the floor and let the novel’s structure be determined by their random placement. I don’t know if it’s true, but I hope so.
Who is someone you admire who does work that you feel really benefits your “local” community, and what kind of work is it that they do?
A poet named Fredrik who bucks the trend and walks the walk helping ordinary folks write poems through free mentoring and informal, impromptu workshops.