Review: "Poūkahangatus" by Tayi Tibble

Poūkahangatus by Tayi Tibble
First published 2018
★★★★

This collection makes for a searing exploration of identity (and identity politics), race, gender, sexuality, and more. First published in Australia, it made its US debut last year, and upon finishing it I immediately checked the availability of her second collection. The poems vary in form and content, but each is tightly woven, tightly wrangled.

I always approach poetry with some trepidation, because verse is not a language I speak fluently—B1 at best, and even that is pushing it. But at the very least I can tell what sort of language speaks to me, makes me want to read more, and Tibble is doing that here.

I am the dress you wear / to your funeral / I am the dress you wear / then it comes off (35)

Once Mum tried / to scare my sister and me by grabbing us / as we finished our makeup in the bathroom. / I froze and tried to slip down the wall. My sister / punched her in the nose. Not sure who learned / what that day, but she's fire and I'm stone. (63)