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When the trees came down no one knew how / to interpret the light. homeless / it bounces off glass surfaces / pierces the wandering eye-
These poems walk streets and take snapshots of the impact financialization of our homes has on our sense of community and belonging.
Meandering through physical and philosophical materials - cement, memory, water, narrative, history, sand, light, concrete, and others’ voices - Daniela Elza documents this urgent moment. The reader winds through fragments amidst urban fragmentation. A sequence of triptych poems hearkens to silos, skyscrapers, and streets. Readers here have a choice: they can read across the page or down. She channels Syrian architect Marwa Al-Sabouni, who says, “The fabric of our cities is reflected in the fabric of our souls.” SCAR/CITY emerges from the Vancouver context to take on global issues of predatory finance and a market that mines homes for profit. It steps outside of binary conversations in favour of poetic reflection and interrogates a system that results in perceptible depravity and scarcity, which leaves us homeless, metaphorically and literally.
French philosopher Gaston Bachelard says, “The space we love is unwilling to remain permanently enclosed … Space calls for action, and before action, the imagination is at work.” Amidst negotiations and advocacy in the fight for security of tenure and lease renewal, SCAR/CITY is a poetic call to action.
"A riveting collection, precisely right for this cultural moment: Daniela Elza’s assemblage of grief and rage is transmuted onto the page into beautiful lines that break, unfold, and then re-inhabit space. Shivers of recognition accompanied my reading. This is poetry as an invitation to both action and contemplation: What is home and how will it endure for us? How will we live in our cities, in places we can afford? These poems serve as way-finders for anyone passionate about land use, urban planning, and community survival." Renée Sarojini Saklikar, author of Children of Air India
"Readers of SCAR/CITY will be moved by its tenacity and purpose in bringing poetic expression to the ongoing housing crisis in Vancouver." British Columbia Review