"Living Space" is not the only poem in which Imtiaz Dharker focuses on buildings and light as a metaphor for the human condition. In her poem "Tissue," paper is used in an extended metaphor that comments on the transient nature of civilization and the fragile power of human life. The speaker imagines buildings made of paper: an architect could use this material to "trace a grand design // with living tissue, raise a structure / never meant to last" (Lines 32-34). All of the well-used and well-loved paper in the poem is thinned by age and touch, and it is this that "lets the light / shine through" and that could "alter things" in the grand scheme of life (Lines 1-3).
"Living Space" also deals with buildings and light, but in a sense proceeds from an opposite direction. Rather than rebuild in the mind of the reader structures made from an impermanent material, the speaker in "Living Space" describes structures that are already fragile to begin with. The building in the poem is not composed of straight lines; it "leans dangerously / Towards the miraculous" (Lines 9-10). The eggs that someone left in the building are also an important structure in the poem. Their fragility is compared to the "bright, thin walls of faith" (Line 22).
Light means something slightly different in these two poems. In "Living Space," light represents human tenacity in difficult circumstances. The eggs "Gather the light / Into themselves," and are compared to "the bright thin walls of faith" (Lines 19-20 and 23). In "Tissue," light is not created within humans, but rather shines through the structures that humans believe will last forever. In both poems, light is a metaphorical connection between humanity and a higher source.
The titles of the poems suggest a thesis that there is life in buildings, and that Dharker's poetry is itself a kind of building. The meaning of "Tissue" comes to encompass not only paper, but the reader's skin. The phrase "A Living Space" not only refers to the utility of the space, but could be understood as the life created in the structure as a result of human faith. Dharker applies an architectural eye in these poems, using the materials of poetry (lines, form, etc.) to build structures through which the light will shine.
