Fulfilling my obligations to my long-neglected TBR one book a time. Want to know why? I explain it in the first post here.

Not to brag, but we spent Christmas 2023 in Hawaii. Our kids were 20 and 17 and we figured we’d get one last big family vacation in while they were still interested in travelling with us. Yes, yes, I know, I too suspect they will always be willing to travel with us as long as we’re paying 😉

In addition to seeking out local food, art, and music when we travel, I also like to seek out local poetry. This usually means searching out whatever independent bookstores may be around and stopping in. If you’re ever in Honolulu, check out Native Books at Arts and Letters in Chinatown. Fantastic shop and naturally super knowledgeable about local authors which is the whole point of shopping at local, independent retailers.

Being a middle-aged white man from one of the more northern bits of Canada, I knew nothing about Hawaiian poetry. The kind staff at Native drew my attention to a couple of poets including No’u Revilla:

Published by Milkweed out of Minneapolis of all places (and printed in Canada coincidentally, one suspects at Friesens in Winnipeg) “Ask the Brindled” is a slim volume filled with a number of very sharp poems. Like glass in sand, some of No’u’s language slices and works its way under your skin. Not every piece in this collection works for me, which is not surprising really given the difference in our demographics, but some of them really, really do. Take this bit from “How To Swallow a Colonizer”

4. Always rub your piko.
When the Settler breaks down
stick your finger in your mouth
to beckon flowers.

Jeepers! I did have to look up what a “piko” is (the crown of the head) of course and actually, I spent a great deal of time looking words up while reading this book. This is one of the book’s major strengths for me. There is a liberal amount of the Hawaiian language throughout and in addition to having to look up vocabulary, these unfamiliar phonemes do delightful things to rhythm and sound that we’re not used to when reading poetry purely in English.

I feel chagrin that this book sat on my shelf for the entire year and it wasn’t until I was feeling nostalgic for our fantastic Christmas in Hawaii that I remembered it and dug it out of the to be read pile. I wish I had gotten to it sooner and I wish had more of No’u’s work to read. I guess I’ll just have to go back to Honolulu…..