Poetry: Diaspora Triptych by Sabyah Seyam
Riddled with distances reflected in the poem’s form, both as three parts that span multiple countries, and in the slashes that lineate within its columns, Sabyah Seyam’s “Diaspora Triptych” is the kind of poem that we will continue to turn over and over. “i’m trying to lay off the metaphors,” insists the speaker even as they gather them, seeking ways of speaking about the dissonances of their experience.
Diaspora Triptych
Sabyah Seyam
Sabyah Seyam is a Palestinian writer born and currently based in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal, Canada. She is pursuing a BA in Creative Writing at Concordia University. She has been published in John Abbott College’s literary magazine, Locus, and in Polar Expressions Publishing’s Summer 2021 issue, Behold. She was a semifinalist in the Quebec Writers Federation’s 2021 College Writers Award, and is a poetry editor for Concordia's literary journal, Soliloquies. She mainly writes about gender, her ethnic identity, the body and childhood.