"What is a heart burning from a distance?”
Written by Allie Rigby, originally published on Living Poetry Substack.
Emily Ahmed's debut poetry collection, On Distance (Elyssar Press, 2026), offers a bridge somewhere between "leaving and being left."
*The title (above) is from a line in Emily Ahmed’s “Work of Art” from her newly released book, On Distance. Welcome to Living Poetry. I’m Allie, a poet with roots in the California chaparral.
Dear Living Poetry friends,
One thing I love about contemporary poetry is that the branches of this tree–and the roots–are always growing. Every year, there are new books of poetry that continue to dazzle, surprise, challenge, haunt, and embrace me. With National Poetry Month just around the corner, we’re starting the party early, with a visual nod to the Top 15 Books of Contemporary Poetry. I curated this list with the intention of creating an easy way for people to pick a book, any book, from it, and expand their peregrinations into the wild world of contemporary poetry. [1]
Today, let’s dive into Emily Ahmed’s impressive debut, On Distance (Elyssar Press, 2026). [2,3]
From right to left, we have Sarah Ghazal Ali’s Theophanies, Megan Fernandez’s I Do Everything I’m Told, Natalie Diaz’s Postcolonial Love Poem, and Emily Ahmed’s On Distance.
Ahmed’s On Distance is one part ode, one part fairy tale, and one part bridge on that eternal quest for home
No matter which poem you turn to in this collection, motifs of home, airplanes, language, longing, destruction, and regrowth are woven into the architecture of each poem. The collection is organized as having a clear beginning, middle, and end, with early poems like “On the airplane”, “Arrival”, “Beginning”, and “Ghazal: Storyboard” situating the reader in multiple once upon a time placement. Not unlike Daniel Kwan’s movie, Everything Everywhere All at Once, there is a kaleidoscopic sense of being suspended in time, while simultaneously stuck in a city that one loves, resents, and misses terribly.[4]
The poet behind the collection, Ahmed, is an Egyptian-American writer, artist, and graduate student working on her MFA. Her poems have been published in Trampoline, Sienna Solstice, Plentitudes, Running Dog, Mizna, and more. Ahmed studied Arabic, Middle Eastern Studies, and art in Minnesota and throughout North Africa and Southwest Asia, and On Distance is her first book of poetry. Fady Joudah, author of […], wrote the following about On Distance :
“The memoir and the memorial, with all their ‘dangerous tongues’ building and destroying bridges, the Arab as American and the American as Arab: Emily Ahmed, a poet who aspires to ‘age like a country’, or like a Penelope, always between leaving and being left.”
“Work of Art”, “Sami’s Fairytale”, and “The Carpenter & The Mermaid” are recall the enchantment and temporal suspension of fairytales
There are many “fairytale poems” in this book, situating the reader in a world of the deep past that lingers, like a scent, in the present. There is a sense of entrapment in the poem “Work of Art” where the speaker (or the direct address ‘you’) lives “inside a work of art,” which could be interpreted literally or symbolically. Like many fairytales, beauty, imprisonment, possibility, and reimagining abound–even within these seven stanzas.
“Work of Art” with the lingering question, “What is a heart burning from a distance?”
Waiting, waiting, and waiting. Is that what it means, to live suspended between multiple places?
What is arrival, then? Ahmed leaves readers with more questions, more food for thought, than answers.[5] For now, I’ll leave you with my notes on page 58, where Ahmed’s poem “Work of Art” speaks of the collection, at large, and within the last three stanzas, perhaps, an answer awaits us.
P.S. If you live in Florida, join Emily Ahmed in conversation with Gia Rojas on March 26 for an in-person book launch!
1 Like Living Poetry, this Top 15 list is curated by me. Because I am only one person (most days) with opinions, predilections, poetry preferences, etc., this list is neither perfect nor comprehensive. Rather, this Top 15 list is an additional way for people who want a recommendation to have one (or 15) and to celebrate contemporary poetry. I encourage people to pick a book, any book, from it, and expand their peregrinations into the wild, exciting world of some of the freshest poetry there is, from the last five years (or so).
2 I was fortunate to work with Emily Ahmed in 2025 and early 2025 as one of her early editors for On Distance. Usually, when I edit books, I am hesitant to endorse them, as one might assume an obvious bias toward the work. But in this case, I’m breaking that rule and endorsing this book, shouting its praise from the rooftops, because I believe that, whether I had edited it or not, it would have burrowed its way into my heart. Emily Ahmed is a poet to watch and one of the most gracious, caring, and thoughtful writers I’ve had the opportunity to work with.
3 Elyssar Press was established in 2018 by the poet, artist, and musician Katia Aoun Hage. It is a publishing company inspired by the legendary Queen Elyssar. You can read about Katia’s lessons from publishing, as well as her “Big dream to start a small press.”
4Everything Everywhere All at Once is a genre-smashing sci-fi movie from 2022. Daniel Kwan directed it. The film stars Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, and Jamie Lee Curtis.
5 Emily Ahmed is an Egyptian-American writer and artist. Her poems are published in Trampoline, Sienna Solstice, Plentitudes, Running Dog, Mizna, and more. She studied Arabic, Middle Eastern Studies, and art in Minnesota and throughout North Africa and Southwest Asia. On Distance is her first book of poetry.
