O Degrees, O Degrees: Poems

O[degrees], O[degrees] is where the equator and prime meridian cross, but it is also, in Amit Majmudar’s poetic cartography, ‘the one True Cross, the rood’s wood warped and tacked / pole to pole’. Unlikely intersections lie at the heart of Amit Majmudar’s first collection of poetry. Mythical, biblical, political, and scientific allusion thrive side by side, inspiring surprise and wonder. Majmudar’s training as a medical doctor is clearly at work as he is able to balance poetic forms requiring surgical precision - including the exceedingly difficult ghazal - with warmth and compassion for the world. Majmudar understands suffering on the large scale and the small, whether he is speaking up for the biblical character Job and ‘answering the whirlwind’, or tallying the human cost of war at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.