{"id":105596,"date":"2026-09-06T13:41:54","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T20:41:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=105596"},"modified":"2026-09-03T14:14:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T21:14:16","slug":"read-local-jasmine-khaliq-on-family-memory-and-spells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/read-local-jasmine-khaliq-on-family-memory-and-spells\/","title":{"rendered":"READ LOCAL: Jasmine Khaliq on Family, Memory and Spells"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Utah poet Jasmine Khaliq.<\/p><\/div>\n

On September 9, Jasmine Khaliq joins Lisa Bickmore and Paula Mendoza for the inaugural installment of the Ambit Poetry Series, a new monthly reading series in downtown Salt Lake City begun by poet Lindsey Webb (Books & Supply, 252 E. 100 South, SLC, 6:30 pm sharp)<\/p>\n

Khaliq is the author of Somewhere Horses<\/em>, winner of the Barrow Street Press Editors\u2019 Prize and forthcoming from Barrow Street Press in April 2027. Her poetry has appeared in Poetry Northwest, 32 Poems, Passages North, Poet Lore, The Rumpus and elsewhere. She holds a BA from San Francisco State University and an MFA from the University of Washington, Seattle, and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in English and Creative Writing at the University of Utah.<\/p>\n

Two of the poems Khaliq shares with READ LOCAL come from her collection, Somewhere Horses<\/em>, winner of the Barrow Street Press Editors\u2019 Prize and forthcoming from Barrow Street Press in April 2027. \u201cAmmi Tends to the Garden, Alone\u201d began, she says, with the sound of a poem by the celebrated Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz. Khaliq\u2019s Abu, who died when she was thirteen, loved Urdu poetry. Rather than translate Faiz\u2019s poem, she tried to arrange English words that echoed the sounds of the original. What emerged was a poem about her grandparents, addressed \u201cfor Perveen & Abdul,\u201d and a garden that connects family, distance and memory. \u201cMy ammi is well and her garden in California is marvelous,\u201d Khaliq says. \u201cI miss it all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRearing\u201d also grew out of memory, this time while Khaliq was a young adult living alone in Seattle. Rain, remembered cows on hills and family photographs she had collected for an embroidery project came together in a poem where childhood recollection slips easily into the strange beauty of the present. One of those photographs\u2014Khaliq as a baby, mouth open against her mother\u2019s cheek\u2014survives alongside the memory recalled in the poem.<\/p>\n

And then there is \u201cCharm to Separate Yourself from Another,\u201d a prose poem offering detailed instructions involving hair, a silver dagger, dog urine, rotten grapes and the inedible parts of three fish. Khaliq\u2019s explanation is considerably more concise: \u201cIt is a spell. I haven\u2019t tried it. If you do, please reach out.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ammi Tends to the Garden, Alone<\/h3>\n

for Perveen & Abdul<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Rotting until interred\u2014could you await me?
\nSpring Jasmine may, lucky, herald and eye
\nthe shift in September to autumntime. A challenge: bait seasons,
\nreap beginnings, mark being. Walk, qualmless, into evening after evening.<\/p>\n

  <\/div>\n

*previously published in Passages North<\/p>\n

 <\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>

The poet kissing her Ammi.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n

Rearing<\/h3>\n

I watch from a fence
\nwith nothing to say,
\nno idea what to do,
\nand a hand reaches out\u2014<\/p>\n

to whom? all the cows too far,
\nlying, talking, chewing,
\nbeautiful, plain, pan flutes walking,
\nand seen smooth in the tops of their heads
\nis each phase of the moon.<\/p>\n

the compulsion to kiss babies
\nI have always understood.<\/p>\n

as a baby I kissed faces
\nlike I wanted to eat them,<\/p>\n

my mouth full-open,
\nwet against the cheek.<\/p>\n

as a baby my feet
\nhardly ever touched the ground.<\/p>\n

half my days now spent
\nwalking, standing useless around.<\/p>\n

 <\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Charm to Separate Yourself from Another<\/h3>\n

With silver dagger cut a lock of your hair. Cut a lock of theirs as they sleep. Braid the hair (first strand only your hair, second strand only theirs, third strand yours and theirs combined) and tie it off on either side with any dark string. Store it where ever you keep your dagger normally. Your dagger, meanwhile, must cure for nine nights in a cold pot. The pot: two parts dog urine. Half part rotten red grapes, sliced and smashed by the dagger. The inedible pieces of three fish. Do not act as if anything is amiss. After nine days retrieve the braid. In your left hand hold your dagger. Saw through the braid. Say your own name as you move towards your body, their name on the motion away. Do this until the braid is cut. Do not confuse the names even once. Dispose of the braids. Do not ever clean the blade.<\/p>\n

  <\/div>\n

*previously published by Sho Poetry Journal<\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On September 9, Jasmine Khaliq joins Lisa Bickmore and Paula Mendoza for the inaugural installment of the Ambit Poetry Series, a new monthly reading series in downtown Salt Lake City begun by poet Lindsey Webb (Books & Supply, 252 E. 100 South, SLC, 6:30 pm sharp) Khaliq is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1566,"featured_media":105597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[35,2513],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-literary-arts","category-read-local-first"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-11-21 20:11:46","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Scan95006.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1566"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105596"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105605,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105596\/revisions\/105605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}