"Ultimate Orangutan" by Khairani Barokka (Nine Arches Press, 2021)

Poems from Granta, Poetry Review, Stand, The Rialto, etc. - an impressive haul. 3 pages of informative notes. Ecopoetry, language, chronic pain and colonialism are themes. She's a visual artist too, with a Ph.D in Visual Cultures. She performs, and has been involved with D/deafness and disability literary anthologies and projects.

I listened to a "The Writing Life" podcast with her and Rishi Dastidar. They discussed how a poem's non-verbal beginnings ("the daze") gradually coalesce into words that in turn help the poet understand/adjust the original concept. During re-writes, serendipity may help. I recognise that process - how for example the need to find a rhyming word might send a poem in unexpected directions.

The poem she chose to read was "perimeter blues" (published by Poetry Review). She said about it that Indonesia has more coastline than any other nation, and that ever more of it is private (resorts, etc). The plot of the poem is that someone is trespassing on the shore. The sea goddess mentioned was presented as fierce to the poet when she was little (powerful women often are). I'd have been helped if the plot were clearer and if that background info were in the poem. "the bay where once it spit away ownership" and "shore's domed soul" are too confusing to give "godspirit cordoned from me/ sit here" much impact. Why the "godspirit" word choice? Why no punctuation after "me"?

In the podcast she hoped that her non-Western, post-colonialism viewpoint might shake up readers. She said her opinions aren't new but they're not often seen - they only achieve recognition when validated by white scientists. Western solutions (capitalist and artistic) aren't helping. Carbon credits only shift pollution and encourage corruption. The term "nature poem" is often used in a non-activist, submissive way.

She said that her successive drafts became more political. She felt she had a captive audience and might as well exploit the opportunity. I think that the style's open to collage and that more facts and figures could have been introduced.

I used to help run the local Friends of the Earth group. I went round doing talks in schools. I'm rather out of touch now, but her viewpoint wasn't new to me. Besides, literature has never triggered my activism. I think poetry, (especially this non-accessible type that many will put down after reading a page or so), makes nothing happen. Songs might help.

In "Fence and Repetition: A History of Climate Change" the first line's the same as the last line, and so on, except that the middle 5 lines aren't repeated. "abecedarian for other alphabets" is an abecedarian. The disjunctive nature of the writing reduces the pressure of the constraints.

There's no shortage of visual variety - right-aligned, gaps between words, couplets, regular indents, use of "/", etc. I don't understand the formats - they seem too random and gimmicky to me. Indeed, I have trouble appreciating the poetry overall. It's beyond me. I don't see how surface disruption helps. When clarity threatens, the reaction is to fracture, complicate, add chaff. Quoting out of context probably isn't helpful - the juxtaposed material matters. But anyway ...

• "and constellations swarm your body,// reminding you of what is here still" (p.25) - in what sense "swarm your body"?
• "ferrying through aqua, seaspray,/ sky so slick it cracked open, so bright/ it shone periwinkle, green mounds on by" (p.27) - this is a section. Why "aqua"? Is it Latin, or a colour? Is "mounds" a verb?
• "gives me a pass" has a relatively clear narrative. I've noticed in other poets (e.g. Denise Riley) that their poetry's clearest when the subject matter's their own suffering.
• I was born in a placement/ speaking to difficulty:/ 'under the sun's beams.' (p.52) - uh?
• "equation" has "sketch the algebraic topology of boats/ the homeomorphism causing/ continuous inverse functions of home"

Other reviews

• Jennifer Wong (Barokka’s work explores the issues surrounding disability, advocacy, and notions of justice along the anti-colonial praxis. ... Through the use of experimental language and forms, and surreal imagery, Barokka’s poetry exposes the underlying relationship between colonialism and environmental and systemic injustices, confronting the reader with crucial, thought-provoking questions about climate change and the treatment of indigenous societies, and forces us to contemplate the consequences of inaction. )
• sean wai keung (Together, these poems form a concept album which challenges expected definitions of ecopoetry while managing to maintain high emotion throughout.)
• Dave Coates
• Rebecca Forster (The topics of her second collection include chronic pain, the oppression of women, and the environmental crisis. ... “Fence and Repetition” sets out a palindrome of lines, and later on there are a golden shovel and an abecedarian)