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A review by elena_lowana
Homecoming by Elfie Shiosaki
5.0
By far one of my favourite poetry readings. I read it quickly, but it was no less savoured for it. I know I will read and re-read this collection again and again; return to certain poems at different times - as balm, as solace, as restoration.
Blood memory, healing, wounding through the archives; the role of storytelling to 'resist', 'survive', 'renew' (the 3 sections in the collection). So much that I have found difficult to translate from feeling into words is captured in Shiosaki's poetry.
The use of archives throughout - to challenge, speak back to, hold to account - of voices now passed on, recorded and transmitted through poetic form was a powerful way to provide this generational storytelling. It has inspired me, lit a spark within me of my own generational stories; the stories that have not yet been given voice and yet should be. The use of language words throughout, of place and its markers - reclaiming Country, reclaiming being - each page was brilliant in both language and form.
The below are 3 poems that stood out to me the most, on my first reading (impossible to include the entire book here). I know as I read again and again there will be others, influenced by the time and location in which I read from.
'The Past Is a Second Heartbeat' (122).
'Lost in Archive' (113).
'Tidal Race' (35).
Finally, I want to share Jeanine Leane's review of this collection, for the way it picks out something often ignored in poetry reviews - the use of space:
Blood memory, healing, wounding through the archives; the role of storytelling to 'resist', 'survive', 'renew' (the 3 sections in the collection). So much that I have found difficult to translate from feeling into words is captured in Shiosaki's poetry.
The use of archives throughout - to challenge, speak back to, hold to account - of voices now passed on, recorded and transmitted through poetic form was a powerful way to provide this generational storytelling. It has inspired me, lit a spark within me of my own generational stories; the stories that have not yet been given voice and yet should be. The use of language words throughout, of place and its markers - reclaiming Country, reclaiming being - each page was brilliant in both language and form.
The below are 3 poems that stood out to me the most, on my first reading (impossible to include the entire book here). I know as I read again and again there will be others, influenced by the time and location in which I read from.
'The Past Is a Second Heartbeat' (122).
'Lost in Archive' (113).
'Tidal Race' (35).
Finally, I want to share Jeanine Leane's review of this collection, for the way it picks out something often ignored in poetry reviews - the use of space:
"These seemingly blank spaces are where the spectral/spirit world carries on and the ancestors continue their lives in pauses, in margins, and in between lines. It’s the unwritten words – what English cannot do or say – and what the page cannot contain that make the poems so powerful. Fragmented and untold stories are conjured by blank spaces. Meaning and story live on beyond the poems."