poetry (i)
I am so, so grateful to my friend Zhi Yi Cham for introducing me to poetry. Before I met Zhi at the Canberra launch of Voiceworks #104 'Cake', I thought poetry was too complicated or irrelevant. In 2016, the only poets I knew were Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Keats and Yeats.
Zhi's poem 'soft-boiled' was the first that truly resonated with me. They later introduced me to Ocean Vuong's Night Sky With Exit Wounds, the first poetry collection I ever read. I remember reading one poem a night. It was that intense. You can read a selection here.
Over the years, I made more poet friends who then introduced me to more poets. I added to my shelves and bookmarks. A very incomplete list but some of my favourites include:
- Night Sky With Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong
- blur by the by Zhi Yi Cham
- When I die slingshot my ashes onto the surface of the moon by Jennifer Nguyen
- House A and Moon by Jennifer S. Cheng
- Brown Girls in Bright Red Lipstick by Courtney Sina Meredith
- Hera Lindsay Bird by Hera Lindsay Bird
- Flood Damages by Eunice Andrada
- Blakwork by Alison Whittaker
- He's So MASC by Chris Tse
- A Cruelty Special to Our Species by Emily Jungmin Yoon
- Poūkahangatus by Tayi Tibble
- Oculus by Sally Wen Mao
- Soft Science by Franny Choi
- Sergius Seeks Bacchus by Norman Erikson Pasaribu (trans. Tiffany Tsao)
- Hard Damage by Aria Aber
- Unexpected Vanilla by Lee Hyemi (trans. Soje)
- Magnolia 木蘭 by Nina Mingya Powles
- Some Are Always Hungry by Jihyun Yun
- Dropbear by Evelyn Araluen
- Translating Feminisms chapbooks (series 1 includes poetry translated from Tamil, Korean, Vietnamese and Nepali, and series 2 includes writings by Filipinas and poetry translated from Indonesian)
- 'My father the sky' by Danny Silva Soberano
- 'The Saddest Song in the World' by Chris Tse
- 'Pluto Shits on the Universe' by Fatimah Asghar (listen here)
- 'geography test' by Saaro Umar
- 'ars poetica' and 'how to say' by Safia Elhillo
- 'Cellophane Heart' and 'Styroform Love Poem' by Nina Mingya Powles
- 'A nightmare I have is that I end up where I started' by Jennifer Nguyen
- 'soak, reprise' by Zhi Yi Cham
I feel grateful to all of these poets and many, many more x
Please let me know if you have any recommendations or would like tailored suggestions.
I still feel wobbly about including poet in my bio. It's a year (!) since I wrote a poem but in the past few months, I've invited to write blurbs for Catcalling by Lee Soho (trans. Soje) and flesh into blossom by Leila Lois, and a short reflection on Jennifer Nguyen's When I die slingshot my ashes onto the surface of the moon for Australian Poetry Journal.
I hope to write longform criticism on a poetry collection or collections. Watch this space x
