Writers intent

• What does Dharker suggest about human power?

  She shows that human systems (e.g. maps, buildings, money) are fragile, unlike nature. Her intent is to challenge ideas of permanence and control.
• Why does Dharker use paper as a metaphor?

  Paper symbolises transience and vulnerability. Her intent is to explore how human lives and histories are written, changed, and erased.
• What is Dharker’s message about identity?

  She presents identity as fluid and layered, much like paper. Her intent is to celebrate diversity and the complex fabric of humanity.
• How does Dharker challenge materialism?

  She critiques society’s reliance on structures and wealth, suggesting true strength comes from light, spirit, and human connection.
• Why does Dharker end the poem with “turned into your skin”?

  She brings the message back to the personal and human, implying that our physical existence is the most fragile, yet meaningful form of ‘tissue’.
• How does Imtiaz Dharker’s context and writer’s intent influence the presentation of identity, human power, and nature in Tissue?

  Dharker’s multicultural background and experience reconciling conflicting identities shape the poem’s exploration of fragile, layered human identity. Writing as part of The Terrorist at My Table—a collection on global politics and power—she critiques human attempts to control and dominate (power of humans), showing them as fragile like tissue paper. Her personal experiences with loss deepen the poem’s meditation on life’s impermanence, highlighting the enduring power of nature and light that transcends human control. The poem challenges rigid human structures and celebrates nature’s subtle, liberating influence on identity.