Author: Frederickson-Yahya Date: 1999 Institution: The-University-of-North-Dakota (0156) Subject:Literature Language: English
Abstract: The Yemen Journals is a collection of original poems that address experiences I had in Yemen and Ethiopia. Many of the poems examine the life I confronted in the physical and social settings of those countries, where beneath the exotic sense impressions and imagery lay questions of identity.
The poems in Yemen Journals chronicle my contact with unfamiliar cultures and consider the ways I changed during my six years in Yemen. I became fluent in Arabic, converted to Islam, married an Ethiopian-Yemeni woman, and became the father of twins. The more time I spent in Yemen, the more I felt the distinctions between my position as an observer and as a participant blur. The poems in this collection are intended to map the changes that result when the self, facing undefined roles, defines them.