Emerging BIWOC Poet Spotlight: Saba Keramati
This monthly series features poems by women of color in the early stages of their publishing careers. It is our intention to create more space at Perugia for the work of poets who are Black, Indigenous, and women of color (BIWOC). We hope using our platform to highlight this work will expand the readership of the poets we spotlight. This series aligns with Perugia’s mission to celebrate and support emerging women poets, inclusive of gender-expansive identities; featured poems will be from poets with no more than one published full-length collection. We’d love to hear from readers with suggestions for poems & poets to feature.
May 2025 Poet: Saba Keramati
Ars Poetica Ghazal
Open the way a door opens:
away from me. Like the mouth of a river opening,
softly against the rocks, its own babble enough.
The way a swallow chirps, so open
and sharp against the sky. The way I yawn
when I think of a yawn, instinctive and thus open.
Before I speak I must admit poetry
will not change the world. I entreat an opening
without force. In the face of such suffering,
I name: I can only own my open
mouth and the deed to my own thinking.
I think myself alive and so I am. So I open
against authority, to think I matter. O,
with three names in my mouth, I open.
Source
Self-Mythology, University of Arkansas Press, 2024
Poet bio
Saba Keramati is a Chinese-Iranian writer from California. She is the author of Self-Mythology (University of Arkansas Press, 2024), selected by Patricia Smith for the Miller Williams Poetry Series. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Lit Hub, Kenyon Review, The Rumpus, and other publications. She is the poetry editor for Sundog Lit.