Tarfia Faizullah - Registers of Illuminated Villages - Poems

Sep 29, 2026

Uploaded by Adam

Tarfia Faizullah’s poetry collection presents a sequence of lyrical registers shaped by memory, violence, hunger, desire, and endurance. Through multiple speakers and vivid imagery, the poems move between intimate self-portraits and wider geographies, including accounts of submission, solace, and the spiritual or folkloric presence of djinn. Themes include loss and apprenticeship, questions of writing, and elegiac reflections that connect personal history with communal aftermath, culminating in notes and closing acknowledgments.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryStory & Novel

FormatPDF

Pages116

Reading Time2 h 59 min

AccessFree to download

Contents

The Hidden Register of Hunger

Self-Portrait as Mango

Acolyte

Your Own Country

The Sacrifice

IV and Make-Up Homework

West Texas Nocturne

The Performance of No One's Fingers

Djinn in Need of a Bitch

Feast or Famine

Before the Accident, and After

100 Bells

The Hidden Register of Submission

Self-Portrait as Slinky

What This Elegy Wants

To the Bangladeshi Cab Driver in San Francisco

To the Littlest Brother

Soliloquies from the Village of Orphans and Widows

Your Own Palm

Consider the Hands Once Smaller

Dark Pairing

Poetry Recitation at St. Catherine's School for Girls

Sex or Sleep or Silk

Great Material

You Ask Why Write about It Again

The Hidden Register of Solace

Self-Portrait as Artemis

The Distance between Fire and Stone

The Error of Echo

The Doors to Trinity

Diary

Apology from a Muslim Orphan

Searchlight Payar

Aubade with Sage and Lemon

Because There's Still a Sky, Junebug

I Told the Water

Mother

Variations on a Cemetery in Summer

...But You Can't Stay Here

Fable of the Firstborn

Notes

REG:ISTERSOF ILLUMIN ATEDVILLAGESPOEMSTARFIA:FAIZULLAH REGISTERS OF ILLUMINATED VILLAGES Also by Tarfia Faizullah Seam RE GISTERSF ILLUMINATEDVILLAGE S POEMS # TARFIA FAIZULLAH Copyright ◎2018 by Tarfia Faizullah This publication is made possible,in part,by the voters of Minnesota through a MinnesotaState Arts Board Operating Support grant,thanks to a legislative appropriation fromthe arts and cultural heritage fund,and a grant from the Wells Fargo Foundation.Significant support has also been provided by Target,the McKnight Foundation,theLannan Foundation,the Amazon Literary Partnership,and other generous contributionsfrom foundations,corporations,and individuals.To these organizations and individualswe offer our heartfelt thanks. Published by Graywolf Press250 ThirdAvenue North,Suite 60oMinneapolis,Minnesota 55401 All rights reserved. www.graywolfpress.org Published in the UnitedStates of America ISBN 978-1-55597-80o-6 246897531First Graywolf Printing,2018 Library of Congress Control Number:2017938024 Cover design:Mary Austin Speaker Cover art:Shahzia Sikander,Pleasure Pillars,2001.Watercolor,dry pigment,vegetablecolor,tea and ink on hand-prepared wasli paper.◎ The artist,courtesy of Sean Kelly,New York. foryall shobar jonno 一 CONTENTS Register of Eliminated Villages 5 The Hidden Register of Hunger 11Self-Portrait as Mango 13Acolyte 14 Your Own Country 16The Sacrifice 17 IV and Make-Up Homework 19West Texas Nocturne 21 The Performance of No One's Fingers 22Djinn in Need of a Bitch 24Feast or Famine 27 Before the Accident,and After 29100 Bells 30 The Hidden Register of Submission 35Self-Portrait as Slinky 37What This Elegy Wants 39 To the Bangladeshi Cab Driver in San Francisco 41To the Littlest Brother 43 Soliloquies from the Village of Orphans and Widows 46Your Own Palm 57 Consider the Hands Once Smaller 59Dark Pairing 60 Poetry Recitation at St.Catherine's School for Girls 62Sex or Sleep or Silk 64Great Material 66You Ask Why Write about It Again 67 The Hidden Register of Solace 71Self-Portrait as Artemis 73 The Distance between Fire and Stone 74The Error of Echo 75The Doors to Trinity 77Diary 79 Apology from a Muslim Orphan 8oSearchlight Payar 81 Aubade with Sage and Lemon 82Because There's Still a Sky,Junebug 84I Told the Water 85Mother 87 Variations on a Cemetery in Summer 88...But You Can't Stay Here 90Fable of the Firstborn 91 Notes 95

FAQs

What is the overall structure of the collection?

The book is organized as a contents list of individual poems, grouped under repeating motifs such as “Register” and “Self-Portrait,” and followed by “Notes.”

What kinds of themes recur throughout the poems?

Recurring themes include hunger and elimination, submission and solace, questions about writing, and elegiac reflection tied to personal and communal histories.

Are there specific cultural or spiritual elements mentioned in the poems?

Yes. The contents list includes references such as “Djinn,” indicating spiritual or folkloric elements alongside more direct personal and social imagery.

Sep 29, 2026

Uploaded by Adam