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georgiarybanks's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
4.5
melinda1962's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 In this one small poetry book based on the author’s homeland, I have learned so much about the Marshall Islands. It’s history of being a testing ground for nuclear weapons to its future of disappearing with climate change and everything in between.
lkthomas07's review against another edition
5.0
Wow, this was really good.
Poems of beauty, resilience , and hope through painful circumstances.
Poems of beauty, resilience , and hope through painful circumstances.
emmaito's review against another edition
5.0
The first published book of poetry written by a Marshallese author, Iep Jaltok, is a powerful, haunting, & beautiful collection. Through it, Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner raises a call to action, as she demands justice in the face of devastating effects of climate change on her home island. Her writing covers themes of colonialism, racism, forced migration, & more, & each poem begs to be read slowly & carefully. This book is a treasure that I encourage yall to read.
Excerpt from "History Project":
At fifteen I decide
to do my history project
on nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands
time to learn my own history
I weave through book after article after website
all on how the U.S. military once used
my island home
for nuclear testing
I sift through political jargon
tables of nuclear weapons
with names like Operation Bravo
Crossroads
and Ivy
quotes from american leaders like
90,000 people are out there. Who
gives a damn?
Excerpt from "History Project":
At fifteen I decide
to do my history project
on nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands
time to learn my own history
I weave through book after article after website
all on how the U.S. military once used
my island home
for nuclear testing
I sift through political jargon
tables of nuclear weapons
with names like Operation Bravo
Crossroads
and Ivy
quotes from american leaders like
90,000 people are out there. Who
gives a damn?
_rusalka's review against another edition
5.0
So it happened. I found a poetry book I cannot stop thinking about. I found a poetry collection that made me stop and find Lexx and make him listen to the poems I had just read. I found poetry that connected.
Not all of this book did it for me. There were certain poems that I just did not have the cultural experience or understanding to connect with. But I appreciated them and their teachings.
But others. Others about colonialism, nuclear testing, racism both from within and outside the Pacific communities, climate change and impacts, health issues within Indigenous communities, internalised racism, politics... they all resonated. And at times resonated with a punch to the gut.
And that is not to say this tiny book is bleak. It is funny and insightful, it just doesn't gloss over the massive impacts that the Marshall Islands (which includes Bikini Atoll for those of us old enough to remember that name. I didn't know that until this book) have experienced over the past 150 years or so.
I have never understood 'modern' poetry before. It can pretty, but why not write prose? But this is a collection that shows why you use poetry as a medium, where a perfect phrase and no other fluff, structured in the simplest way is art with words, and sometime literally is art with words.
I'll be thinking about these poems for a long time.
Not all of this book did it for me. There were certain poems that I just did not have the cultural experience or understanding to connect with. But I appreciated them and their teachings.
But others. Others about colonialism, nuclear testing, racism both from within and outside the Pacific communities, climate change and impacts, health issues within Indigenous communities, internalised racism, politics... they all resonated. And at times resonated with a punch to the gut.
And that is not to say this tiny book is bleak. It is funny and insightful, it just doesn't gloss over the massive impacts that the Marshall Islands (which includes Bikini Atoll for those of us old enough to remember that name. I didn't know that until this book) have experienced over the past 150 years or so.
I have never understood 'modern' poetry before. It can pretty, but why not write prose? But this is a collection that shows why you use poetry as a medium, where a perfect phrase and no other fluff, structured in the simplest way is art with words, and sometime literally is art with words.
I'll be thinking about these poems for a long time.
bexrecca's review against another edition
5.0
Absolutely incredible. The words burrow into you and stay there. The shape of the poems, the content, everything. Wow.