Description

 

Dualities of Albireo

by Kashiana Singh

Albireo is the double star in the Cygnus constellation known for its striking contrast—gold & blue. This collection delves into the dualities that define existence. Just as Albireo’s brilliance emerges from the interplay of its opposing hues, these poems explore the tension and harmony of life’s binaries: love and loss, war and peace, hope and despair, humanity and nature, fate, and choice. Through this lens, Dualities of Albireo becomes a meditation on the paradoxes that shape the human race and our shared cosmos, each poem an invitation to find meaning in the light and shadow of our stories.

Early Praise:

This is poetry as simultaneous cartography of inner and outer spaces; cosmic yet intimate. Kashiana Singh distills the myriad binaries of being alive; their ache, ecstasy beauty and devastation in a vivid yet compact chiaroscuro reminding us that we each have a teaspoon of stardust flowing in our veins. Our passage on this beautiful dot in the universe is only transitory but it’s okay because we are all this and all of this is us.

—Sophia Naz, bilingual poet & essayist, author of Bark Archipelago

These vivid poems of disappearance feel densely layered, like lingering after-images or the shifting angles of parallax. Each reading reveals new trajectories, demanding close attention. They exist in a state of duality—presence and absence, memory and erasure—where what vanishes also leaves an imprint.

With precise expression and a contemporary voice, Kashiana Singh balances quiet acceptance with bold determination, tracing genealogies that stretch beyond Earth into the stars. A subtle meditation on mortality and cross-cultural connections runs through the work. Her poetry suggests that loss is not an endpoint but a transformation, that resonates and continues.

Her effortless use of evocative phrases makes these poems compelling to read and hear—inviting return: corridors of her body / lead to mine / echo chambers.

—Mandakini Pachauri, Indian poet and non-fiction writer

This collection is an exquisite examination of the threadbare weaving of latitudes and longitudes. The poems examine loss through the pathways of our natural and celestial worlds, and how they intricately intersect. In this journey, you will find yourself immersed in the elegy of anemones, ash, and branches, the atrium of sky, and the milk of dawn. Sometimes in sorrow, we remain entrenched in our stubborn silence. But this work sings out to the experience of the grief we all eventually face. Taking each poem with us, we will hold on to resilience and how our footsteps echo, half in the light, half in the dark.

—Connie Post, Californian poet, author of Between Twilight

Kashiana Singh’s words contain myriad worlds. Your gaze decides what you wish to see and savor. Her annunciations are clear, but beneath the clarity is the complexity. The reader can draw whatever they want from the pale of her poetic well.

The assurance of her lines pays a silent tribute to her labor. Such precision does not lend itself to an unpracticed hand. Read and ruminate in the layered renderings of a seasoned voice. Her tone and texture will postpone your flight to a fulfilling poetic experience. In that pause, the meanings of her meanderings will unfurl as you reach aesthetic bliss.

—Sanjeev Sethi, author of seven books of poetry

About the Author

Kashiana Singh is a poet whose work weaves together the essence of place, identity, and introspection. Her chapbook Crushed Anthills (Yavanika Press) embarks on a poetic journey through ten cities, capturing the soul of each in vivid verses. Her second full-length collection, Woman by the Door (Apprentice House Press), released in 2022, explores the complexity of womanhood, while her newest collection, Witching Hour (Glass Lyre Press), debuted in December 2024, delving into themes of transformation in the birthing house of life.

When she’s not writing, Kashiana lives by the principles of her TEDx talk, “Work as Worship,” bringing mindfulness and reverence into her daily life. She is deeply involved in the literary community, proudly serving as the managing editor for Poets Reading the News and as president of the North Carolina Poetry Society. Outside of her poetry practice, Kashiana is also a vice-president in the healthcare services industry, seamlessly balancing her creative and professional pursuits. Residing in North Carolina, she loves being the family storyteller and bedtime poet for her grandson.