Poetry Readers Challenge discussion

This book of poetry is too complex to do justice in a review. It’s like an art installation. You have to go through it to experience all of the things it’s about. The poetry in this book treats the space on the page as part of its art and message. Most everything is taken as a plastic mode of expression. It’s not a book of poetry where you have a bunch of poems that are left aligned. It’s not always in portrait format. It’s not always in full black font. It’s not always reading top to bottom. It has illustrations and maps. It’s an intersection between two languages, Chamoru (the native language of Guam) and English. It’s also a book about Oceana, how the ocean and islands are conceptualized, being an islander and being diaspora and the art of connectedness.

Because this book leans into the creative flexibility of the Moderns, readers have to be able to tolerate some confusion and disorientation. For example, I wasn’t sure when a new poem was beginning throughout the book. It wasn’t until I started again at the beginning that I realized what I’d taken as the first poem was actually the table of contents, which is to say the table of contents is unconventional, as are the titles of the poems. Even though I am someone who is annoyed by poets who make understanding their poems difficult for readers, this book was intriguing enough and had enough I did understand, I easily overlooked some of the things I didn’t get or couldn’t read.

The most interesting thing this book does is adjust the landbound mindset that the ocean separates peoples rather than uniting them, that individual islands can be claimed as though they’re not part of a larger whole connected by waterways within the larger ocean, and by other forms of commonality. In turn, he describes how the diaspora stays connected via electronic means. And so this book's larger theme is cultural cohesion–and since spam and tabasco are part of that cohesion, those of us familiar with those two foods are also included, if only tenuously.

If you’re someone who hangs on poetic convention or feels they need to grasp each poem or section of each poem before moving on, this book is not for you. You have to be up to being disrupted (a reflection of how indigenous people have been disrupted) when you read this book. If you’re not, pass it by until you are ready.

The scope of the project of this book is admirable. Perez is rethinking what we do on the page, he’s navigating different languages, raising awareness for those not familiar with the subject matter, doing so in a manner that is stern but also offering a measure of grace and humor. He shows tenderness for the whole population that is relying on him to speak for them.

This book is a worthy winner of the 2023 National Book Award. I recommend that anyone not put off by creative use of materials (including here language as a material) to wend your way through it to see if your perspective isn’t a little different on the other side.