Falling Deeply into America

“[A] thought-provoking yet lyrical volume.” — Booklist

“Falling Deeply into America is one of the most even-tempered and joyful collections I’ve encountered recently. Its thirty-four poems have been neatly bracketed into three sections: those depicting the poet’s childhood home, Egypt, and his immigration at the age of eight to the United States; poems of fatherhood; and a final section of miscellany. By far, the most striking of the poems are those recounting boyhood impressions of Alexandria…At their best these poems recall the early work of Derek Walcott, with their classic stoicism, and that other Alexandrian, Cafavy, with their delicate minimalism…Wildly fresh, with a foreigner’s tilted view of America, poems such as ‘When I First Saw Snow,’ ‘In the Elementary School Choir,’ ‘How I Learned English,’ ‘My Aunt Gives Me a Clarinet Lesson,’ and ‘Clouds’” offer installments in an Egyptian boy’s passage toward citizenship. And in the Waspy realms of American poetry, it is a unique and welcome point of view.” — Henri Cole, Poetry