Excerpts from Quay 2 | 1 – Michigan Quarterly Review

Excerpts from Quay 2 | 1

I’m rooted in movement

I’m rooted in movement

I’m rooted in movement

I’m rooted in movement

this phenomenon is improbable

it’s improbable

I’m rooted in resonance

I’m rooted in transparency

branches glide over me

I’m rooted in resonance

I scrutinize all that’s being whispered

on my neck

I’m rooted in transparency

I exert the highest tension

I tremble

I’m rooted in movement

have I ever known

how to be rooted in movement?

I’m rooted in transparency

what’s revealed in me

is revealed in us

I’ve been rooted in movement

for so long

that I’m rooted in movement

I’m rooted in resonance

what passes through me

mirrors what’s coming


I’m rooted in movement

when the round opens

I’m rooted in movement

when the triangle opens

I’m rooted in movement

when the line closes 

I’m rooted in movement

when your eyes release me

I’m rooted in movement

when you make me wait

I’m rooted in movement

when it topples

I’m rooted in movement

when you catch a cold

I’m rooted in movement

when your fingers brush against me 

I’m rooted in movement

when your voice falls silent

I’m rooted in movement

when your curve bends 

I’m rooted in movement.


Critically acclaimed Samira Negrouche was born in Algiers where she continues to live and work. Author of seven poetry collections and several artist’s books, she is a poet and translator. Involved in various multidisciplinary projects, her recent collaborations include Quai 2I1 with violinist Marianne Piketty and theorbist Bruno Helstroffer. In 2021, Marilyn Hacker’s translation of Negrouche’s The Olive Trees’ Jazz & Other Poems was shortlisted for the Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry and shortlisted for the National Translation Award in Poetry. Her poems have been translated into over twenty languages.

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