TISSUE

• CONTEXT:

  • born in Pakistan (predominantly Muslim) and grew up in Scotland
  • poet's partner was slowly passing away with cancer
  • collection this is from (” The terrorist at my table ”)
• “thinned to be transparent, turned into your skin”

  • Shows the powerlessness of humanity against nature → we are fragile as tissue and transient
  • Single line breaks the arrhythmic quatrains reflecting how life is unpredictable and disorganised not matter how much we try to impose order , also shows how death is unpredictable
• “grand design”

  • this is a blueprint to describe how life is built
  • reference to Genesis 1 as we are ‘traced with living tissue’, made in the ‘image of God’.
• “the marks that rivers make, roads, railtracks, mountainfolds,”

  • “Marks” are the effect of power of nature on mankind
  • Nature symbolises the issues we must push past as a society until we have peace ; the rail tracks and roads symbolise our journey to get their
  • Alliterative “r”s and asyndetic lists reinforces that problems in society comes from natural and man made borders; which can be overcome through unity and light
• “pages smoothed and stroked and turned transparent with attention.”

  • frequent use the paper is worn thin, just as our lives may be examined and rethought
  • pages are ‘turned transparent with attention’ → learn more and see more deeply, the more we examine our lives and grow mature
  • ‘Transparent with attention’ is a juxtaposition → although we focus on life, our lives will become ‘transparent’ and non-existent
  • this line symbolises romance in our lives. The more love and attention we receive, the more we open up to people and became ‘transparent’.
• “ Paper that lets the light shine through “

  • Light is a metaphor for God and nature
  • Jesus is described as the light of the world
  • In the Koran it states that “Allah is the light of the heavens and the earth”
  • Imagery of a stained glass window in which Gods light shines through
  • Ancient religious books were written on vellum or flimsy parchment paper
  • Shows the fragility of life as it can be torn easily like paper
  • However, there is a greater ‘light’ — that of the spirit — that shines and sanctifies frail human endeavour.