Heliotropia by Manahil Bandukwala

Manahil Bandukwala’s second collection of poems is a meditation on love during times of social and political upheaval. As a sunflower’s growth reaches toward the sun, so, she suggests, is a lover’s growth compelled by the gravitational pull and soul-light of their beloved. Many of these poems are in conversation with other poets and artists, creating a lineage of call and response. Against a backdrop of terrestrial crisis, come, spend your precious minutes in love’s Heliotropia, where we are magnetized by the unfathomable dark matter of another person, and know ourselves as celestial bodies flowering in spacetime, together.

Praise for Heliotropia:

“Manahil Bandukwala’s poems are curious, heartfelt, joy-filled expeditions: through rainstorms and supernovas, alternate realities and past lives, or sometimes simply through the park on a walk with a dear friend. Intergalactic yet deeply earthly, intertextual yet wonderfully original, Heliotropia is a place ‘where fear collides / with the little shield of love’ — and love prevails.”
— Mikko Harvey, author of Let the World Have You

“Like a daylily’s petals turn to the sun, so Manahil Bandukwala’s lyric angles against all odds to face the fervid beloved. Through archives of space and scripture, music and made magic, Heliotropia offers a threshold for the reader, a portal — to step over and through is to embark on a spiritual journey into love’s fathomless matrices. In intertextual poems as cosmic as they are botanic and tactile, Bandukwala invites readers to surrender to intimacy. ‘Love is worth loving,’ we are reminded, and against all odds, alternative endings, or origins, ‘the best is what we have.’ Here is a collection that grounds and glorifies, every invocation at once a flame, a sun, a psalm.”
— Sarah Ghazal Ali, author of Theophanies

Jury Citations:

“With form and language that surprises and delights, Manahil Bandukwala has crafted a perfect set of love poems for our current moment. Heliotropia is a study of love over seasons and across time, distance, and space, serving up love letters to lovers, friendship, and to the idea of love poetry itself. Aching in every syllable, Bandukwala’s work is a masterclass in restraint that somehow contains the entire galaxy in its shimmering petals. Heliotropia maps the curiosity and joy of human experience across creased bedsheets, good earth and the language of flowers. It invites readers across the threshold with arms spread wide in welcome; responding with an equally open heart is the only possible answer to this collection.” — from the jurors of the Archibald Lampman Award for Poetry

“Manahil Bandukwala’s Heliotropia undoes the estrangement of today’s chaotic everyday, quietly drawing the reader close, noticing, coaxing warmth and light from sharp angles and buried places. Moving gently, generously between the pulsing, visceral intimacies of personal and historic separation and splitting, wonderous, perplexing carnalities of an unfolding soul story, and galaxies that glory on beyond the digital chirp of our own atmospheric preoccupation, Bandukwala resolutely returns to the redemptive promise of joy, magic, love, ‘even after everything crumbled / and crumbled again.'” — from the jurors of the Pat Lowther Memorial Award

“It’s an understatement to say it is difficult to write a good love poem and yet Bandukwala has given us a whole, shining book of them. Heliotropia is full-fledged, lyric blooming. This is poetry that is somehow both gentle and biting, reminding us of the continuous effort it takes to love amidst a multitude of griefs in the world. This exploration is a force, pulling the reader toward a future where, ‘something survived here, something that could be us.'” — from the jurors of the Raymond Souster Award

Reviews:

“Heliotropia is filled with lovers and beloveds, agape, starlight, and ‘animal light.’ There are also dreams, doorways, and musings on the galaxy. Heliotropia is ultimately a collection that expands in the elusive spaces where word, touch, and light are a palimpsest of magic. Here, saints, sinners, and in-betweeners alike may agree that ‘even at its most difficult / love is worth loving.'” — Shazia Hafiz Ramji, Quill & Quire

“Manahil Bandukwala’s latest book, Heliotropia, is a dreamy and atmospheric collection of speculative poems. With a focus on love, hope and wonder, this book finds the beauty in everyday moments and explores the intricacies of love. Every poem is rooted in love – from describing a blossoming relationship to travelling in outer space. The poet commands readers’ attention through her profound insights about the power of love and offers hope for a brighter tomorrow.” — Helena Ramsaroop, The Fiddlehead