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frenzyreads 's review for:
Antiemetic for Homesickness
by Romalyn Ante
Romalyn Ante is a poet but she is also an immigrant, a NHS nurse, homesick for her Filipino homeland. And her poetry collection honors all that and so much more. ⠀
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It honors all the careworkers from international backgrounds; all the hardworking, invisible women that the UK fails to recognize and yet so desperately depends upon. It honors her young self, missing her mother, and the family she is separated from now in her own adult life. ⠀
It honors those in the UK separated from their heritage and homeland. ⠀
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I could not pick out every favorite line to share here because the tender strength, the grief, the yearning envelopes you from off the page. Though Ante utilizes her own folklore and Tagaglog language to explore themes of belonging, colonialism, home, the migrant experience, and more, her poems feel extremely accessible and open to any who might relate, not just those of the Filipino background. ⠀
⠀
It is for those who feel the split of home and here, past and present, future and present. Never quite belonging in one or the other because the migration story is one of belonging to multiple places and simultaneously to none at all. It is that sense of Other. ⠀
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Included in the work is 'A Boodle Fight of Words and Terminologies' as well as notes that the author included indicating references and other works her poems are in conversation with. The Boodle Fight collection allows Ante to not have to water her heritage down while still inviting the reader to join in and understand. This inclusion was invaluable and a brillaint move on the part of vintage books and Ante. ⠀
⠀
In searching for the cure to homesickness, maybe the only way is to acknowledge and embrace that homesick feeling.
⠀
It honors all the careworkers from international backgrounds; all the hardworking, invisible women that the UK fails to recognize and yet so desperately depends upon. It honors her young self, missing her mother, and the family she is separated from now in her own adult life. ⠀
It honors those in the UK separated from their heritage and homeland. ⠀
⠀
I could not pick out every favorite line to share here because the tender strength, the grief, the yearning envelopes you from off the page. Though Ante utilizes her own folklore and Tagaglog language to explore themes of belonging, colonialism, home, the migrant experience, and more, her poems feel extremely accessible and open to any who might relate, not just those of the Filipino background. ⠀
⠀
It is for those who feel the split of home and here, past and present, future and present. Never quite belonging in one or the other because the migration story is one of belonging to multiple places and simultaneously to none at all. It is that sense of Other. ⠀
⠀
Included in the work is 'A Boodle Fight of Words and Terminologies' as well as notes that the author included indicating references and other works her poems are in conversation with. The Boodle Fight collection allows Ante to not have to water her heritage down while still inviting the reader to join in and understand. This inclusion was invaluable and a brillaint move on the part of vintage books and Ante. ⠀
⠀
In searching for the cure to homesickness, maybe the only way is to acknowledge and embrace that homesick feeling.