Human Geographies by Megan Muthupandiyan

Publisher: Water’s Edge Press LLC (November 25, 2025)

Language: English

Softcover, 59 pages

Genre: Poetry

ISBN: 978-1-952526-26-8

Reviewed by: Christy Hoff

A timeless experience of the universality of the human condition.

Human Geographies by Megan Muthupandiyan is a journey around the world discovering the commonality of the human condition. Despite the seemingly light cargo of 21 poems in 55 pages, the book carries a message for all of humanity.

The book is separated into eleven sections denoted by city. Each individual piece has GPS coordinates. Opening a map to the location before or after reading will give further orientation for the meaning and experience. Despite being a companion piece to a multi-media project, the slim volume stands on its own.

Our world spanning expedition of captured moments begins in Mallorca. Muthupandiyan lays out a constellation of human experience that reminds us all to pay as much attention to our surroundings as our inner response to them. The geographic notation of each poem is a wordless reminder of the limitless migration of humans. She brings science, history, and truth together in a unique vision of ordinary events.

There is no title piece, as the title sums up the experiences contained. Muthupandiyan sees the reflection of the human condition in the shadows of our monuments. From the opening of self demonstrated in El Toro to the timeless and boundaryless Nowhere, Muthupandiyan calls us to recognize the commonality of the human experience.

The Torii Gares of Mount Inari is a beautiful invitation. The unifying rhythm of her lines carries throughout the book. There is a crescendo in The Hall of Antiquities. Pacing out our experience, Muthupandiyan lures us forward and inward.

Exploring exotic and alien places is best shown in the Shuiro. The graphics of a very different language invite contemplation and she offers us her own perspective. This curious interplay of self, vulnerability, and common human experience unifies individual pieces into a map of the Human Geographies.

The sections lead the reader around the world, including our own United States. At last we come to the Coda. The final piece is Nowhere. Yet, the reader must decide whether that is a truth, an experience, or an ending.