The Neverfield is a three-part poem by a Palestinian poet that conflates the exile's search for identity/homeland with the search for a poet/poetry. The homeland is Palestine, and the poet is Palestinian writer Mahmoud Darwish. The work interweaves fragments of Handal's childhood memories and worldwide wanderings with evocations of a devastated homeland and enduring ties to family and community. It is the tale of a mostly internal journey/sojourn, with a poetically constructed Palestine as the mythical Camelot, the poet as the knight in shining armor, and the "Neverfield" as the quest.

 The Neverfield is reminiscent of some of the films of Michelangelo Antonioni,  Luis Bunuel, and Jean-Luc Godard in its use of evocative imagery and its dreamlike, nonlinear  narrative flow. It is, however, not so much about sociopolitical critique as it a bout testimony and affirmation. Indeed, the work echoes themes also reflected in the poems of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Josey Foo, and Eileen Tabios in evoking ideas of poetry/language as home and claiming one's voice as an affirmation of self. And like some of Lee Young-Li's longer poems, it is personal and intimate in its introspection and more subtle eroticism, yet global in scope and grounded in history.

Reviewer:  Lori Tsang
                  Washington, D.C.
                  Multicultural Review