Chant of Mystics, and Other Poems

Ameen Rihani arrived in America in 1898, and by the 1920s he had become one of the most visible Arab voices in English-language literature. This collection pulses with the landscapes of his childhood in the Lebanese mountains, rendered in lush, musical verse that American readers had never quite encountered before. Rihani weaves folklore and fairy tale romance into his poems, creating something that feels like oral tradition elevated to art. The mystic chants give way to tender narratives of love and longing, all grounded in the specific textures of a Levantine homeland. These poems bridge worlds: the ancient and the modern, the Eastern and the Western, the spoken and the written. For readers seeking poetry that feels like travel, like discovery, like the first sight of a distant shore, Rihani delivers.