It is not entire­ly clear what has arrived, here in this poem ​“PSALM FOR ARRIVAL”. What is clear, is the famil­iar sense that some­times, after a long effort, we are able to ​“find sounds/​for words” — to artic­u­late, the dif­fi­cult stuff of mem­o­ry. And per­haps this is what has arrived, the voic­ing of the dif­fi­cult things. In the end, how­ev­er, Khaled Mat­tawa finds no great relief in speak­ing these words. Some­how the dead­en­ing effects of mem­o­ry can be per­sis­tent, despite our nec­es­sary efforts to dis­avow ​“old sentiments”.