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Dream Fish Floating
Where the free market meets the fleamarket it's all keynesian mystical."
Karlo Mila's voice tavels from urban Aotearoa to Tonga and Samoa via friendships and family relationships. In this first collection of poetry she explores the intergenerational tensions between migration and returning, the new and the traditional, the emergent professional classes and their working-class migrant communities of origin. The poems take delight in language itself and the possibilities afforded by a Tongan-Samoan-Maori-Palangi fusion. Dream Fish Floating is a polyglot chanting back to genealogical and literary bones. It is also a meditation of friendship, family and love.For sale only in the U.S., its dependencies, Canada, and Mexico
Karlo Mila's voice tavels from urban Aotearoa to Tonga and Samoa via friendships and family relationships. In this first collection of poetry she explores the intergenerational tensions between migration and returning, the new and the traditional, the emergent professional classes and their working-class migrant communities of origin. The poems take delight in language itself and the possibilities afforded by a Tongan-Samoan-Maori-Palangi fusion. Dream Fish Floating is a polyglot chanting back to genealogical and literary bones. It is also a meditation of friendship, family and love.For sale only in the U.S., its dependencies, Canada, and Mexico
- GenresPoetry
100 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2006
3 people are currently reading
72 people want to read
About the author
Karlo Mila
5 books4 followersBorn 1974.
Dr Karlo Mila is a New Zealand-born poet of Tongan and Pākehā descent with ancestral connections to Samoa. She is currently Programme Director of Mana Moana, Leadership New Zealand. This leadership programme is based on her postdoctoral research on harnessing indigenous language and ancestral knowledge from the Pacific to use in contemporary leadership contexts. Karlo received an MNZM in 2019 for services to the Pacific community and as a poet, received a Creative New Zealand Contemporary Pacific Artist Award in 2016, and was selected for a Creative New Zealand Fulbright Pacific Writer’s Residency in Hawaii in 2015.
Goddess Muscle is Karlo's third book of poetry. Her first, Dream Fish Floating, won NZSA Jessie Mackay Best First Book of Poetry Award at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards in 2006. In 2008, Karlo collaborated with German-born artist Delicia Sampero to produce A Well Written Body. Karlo's poetry has been published in in many anthologies, in a variety of journals and online.
From Huia Publishers & Wikipedia
Dr Karlo Mila is a New Zealand-born poet of Tongan and Pākehā descent with ancestral connections to Samoa. She is currently Programme Director of Mana Moana, Leadership New Zealand. This leadership programme is based on her postdoctoral research on harnessing indigenous language and ancestral knowledge from the Pacific to use in contemporary leadership contexts. Karlo received an MNZM in 2019 for services to the Pacific community and as a poet, received a Creative New Zealand Contemporary Pacific Artist Award in 2016, and was selected for a Creative New Zealand Fulbright Pacific Writer’s Residency in Hawaii in 2015.
Goddess Muscle is Karlo's third book of poetry. Her first, Dream Fish Floating, won NZSA Jessie Mackay Best First Book of Poetry Award at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards in 2006. In 2008, Karlo collaborated with German-born artist Delicia Sampero to produce A Well Written Body. Karlo's poetry has been published in in many anthologies, in a variety of journals and online.
From Huia Publishers & Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 22, 2020
DREAM FISH FLOATING by Karlo Mila, 2005.
Mila was born and raised in Aotearoa/New Zealand. In her stunning #poetry collection, she describes her life and heritage, that blends Tongan, Samoan, and European roots.
The first half of the collection focuses on love - desire, love lost, sex, short-lived, an enduring, love for others, love for self. I appreciated her visceral imagery in this section.
"your narrative is a needle that pierces
the thickest skin the ink of your pen
blending with our blood tattooing stories
of altered genealogies
between the lines of our naked bodies"
The second half includes some pieces centered on her work in labour relations and organization, and ends with many #elegies for her matriarchal ancestors.
This poem, dedicated to her grandmother who migrated from Samoa to Tonga, where the family lived for years before Mila's own father migrated to NZ. This whole elegy section is called "Chanting Back to the Bones" and was my favorite of the book.
For those of you who love supplemental materials as much as I do, she includes a wonderful glossary of terms, names, and colloquial phrases.
.
Mila was born and raised in Aotearoa/New Zealand. In her stunning #poetry collection, she describes her life and heritage, that blends Tongan, Samoan, and European roots.
The first half of the collection focuses on love - desire, love lost, sex, short-lived, an enduring, love for others, love for self. I appreciated her visceral imagery in this section.
"your narrative is a needle that pierces
the thickest skin the ink of your pen
blending with our blood tattooing stories
of altered genealogies
between the lines of our naked bodies"
The second half includes some pieces centered on her work in labour relations and organization, and ends with many #elegies for her matriarchal ancestors.
Hafe kasi to Afa kasi
(for Mary Stowers, my great- great- great- grandmother)
Mary Mary quite contrary
how did your garden grow?
With coral shells and natural wells
and dusky maids all in a row
Mele, Mele quite contrary
oh how did your garden grow?
With no lilies fair or maidenhair
but a frangipani behind your ear
.
Mary Mele half English rose
Mele Mary from one who knows
Rest in peace as I fight your fight
six generations later
Rest in peace as I live your life
six generations later
This poem, dedicated to her grandmother who migrated from Samoa to Tonga, where the family lived for years before Mila's own father migrated to NZ. This whole elegy section is called "Chanting Back to the Bones" and was my favorite of the book.
For those of you who love supplemental materials as much as I do, she includes a wonderful glossary of terms, names, and colloquial phrases.
.
September 5, 2017
I remember being assigned For Ida in high school English class and feeling for the first time that poetry could be more than just generic love notes or the grumblings of sullen teenagers. It was transformative for me. For the first time, I felt like a poem spoke to my experiences -- and validated them. I remember the teacher calling on the class for reflections, our usual silence, and the boy in class who raised his hand and matter-of-factly stated that he detested being called palangi. To be singled out and recognised for his whiteness was confronting. I remember the tone in the room shifted as we had to centre his hurt feelings, and suddenly it felt like less of a space for someone else to say: This poem recognised me, too, and have it be for the best of reasons. I didn't understand the transformative power this poem would have on me at that time. I was trying too hard not to cry over the
But on reflection, I wish I'd had the courage to let that boy, and the rest of the class, know that this was a poem for me, for them, and for once, not so much for him.
"humble women buried in humble villages
who still sing
across oceans of memory
in words that our children will be able to hear."
But on reflection, I wish I'd had the courage to let that boy, and the rest of the class, know that this was a poem for me, for them, and for once, not so much for him.
December 31, 2023
“Once I thought I had a choice
And a right to choose
And I believed that ignorance
wasn´t bliss
And experience
Led to wisdom”
A lovely book of poems that is very evocative of the lushness of Tonga. But there is not only exotic nature in theses pages. We have stories of love, family, longing and the difficult balance between island traditions and Western culture, especially when it comes to creating your own identity as a woman.
And a right to choose
And I believed that ignorance
wasn´t bliss
And experience
Led to wisdom”
A lovely book of poems that is very evocative of the lushness of Tonga. But there is not only exotic nature in theses pages. We have stories of love, family, longing and the difficult balance between island traditions and Western culture, especially when it comes to creating your own identity as a woman.
April 16, 2025
Mundafora em 198 livros #8: Tonga
Como em muitos os países pequenos, de pouca ou nenhuma relevância para o mercado editorial brasileiro, muitas vezes a minha escolha acaba sendo através daquele livro que consigo disponível, seja ebook ou físico, o mais rápido possível. No caso a coletânea Dream Fish Floating encontrei no kindle.
É interessante a poesia de Mila. Publicada em um momento em que a literatura pasifika ganhava mais espaço na Nova Zelândia, Mila, tem herança tonganesa, samoana e europeia e escreve a partir da fronteira entre mundos, esse espaço híbrido onde ocorrem conflitos, mas também fertilidade criativa.
Nessa sua coletânea, temas como a
sua identidade e pertencimento, migração e memória, suas relações familiares e seu corpo diferente do padrão, são temas em permeia seus poemas. Aliás, há uma musicalidade deliciosa em seus poemas que tem uma linguagem simples e direta, mas carregada de ritmo.
Minha intenção é sempre tentar escolher um romance, mas as circunstâncias tem me levado a escolher contos ou poemas, como foi nesse caso. Mas, ainda bem que pude adentrar nesses poemas. Mila mistura humor, lamento, celebração, política, alternando tons. Aliado ao seu ritmo e o hibridismo linguístico (inserção de palavras em tonganês, samoano e expressões culturais locais), foi uma delícia passar por esses poemas.
O título do livro, “dream fish”, é profundamente simbólico. O “peixe sonhado” representa algo que escapa — um ideal, uma memória, um lar que não se pode habitar por completo. O peixe também é um símbolo de movimento, de oceano, de ancestralidade polinésia. Ele flutua entre mundos — como a própria voz poética da autora — tentando se ancorar, mas sempre em deslocamento. É um símbolo de esperança, mas também de desejo não saciado.
Para quem tiver interesse vou indicar um vídeo da autora, recitando um de seus poemas. Não está nessa coletânea que li, mas me ajudou a entender os ritmos dos poemas dela.
https://youtu.be/XFyEfD4zQCQ?si=UT3y7...
Dream Fish Floating de Karlo Mila. New Zealand: Huia Publishers, 2005. 100p. Leitura de Abril 2025.
and I wonder in this blue
eyed world where I will find shoes that fit my wide feet
that aren’t jandals.
I will hide in the hollow of
your heart
and sing the sacred song
to your spirit
I will tickle your toes
and the whole forest will
quake
with your laughter
Como em muitos os países pequenos, de pouca ou nenhuma relevância para o mercado editorial brasileiro, muitas vezes a minha escolha acaba sendo através daquele livro que consigo disponível, seja ebook ou físico, o mais rápido possível. No caso a coletânea Dream Fish Floating encontrei no kindle.
É interessante a poesia de Mila. Publicada em um momento em que a literatura pasifika ganhava mais espaço na Nova Zelândia, Mila, tem herança tonganesa, samoana e europeia e escreve a partir da fronteira entre mundos, esse espaço híbrido onde ocorrem conflitos, mas também fertilidade criativa.
Nessa sua coletânea, temas como a
sua identidade e pertencimento, migração e memória, suas relações familiares e seu corpo diferente do padrão, são temas em permeia seus poemas. Aliás, há uma musicalidade deliciosa em seus poemas que tem uma linguagem simples e direta, mas carregada de ritmo.
Minha intenção é sempre tentar escolher um romance, mas as circunstâncias tem me levado a escolher contos ou poemas, como foi nesse caso. Mas, ainda bem que pude adentrar nesses poemas. Mila mistura humor, lamento, celebração, política, alternando tons. Aliado ao seu ritmo e o hibridismo linguístico (inserção de palavras em tonganês, samoano e expressões culturais locais), foi uma delícia passar por esses poemas.
O título do livro, “dream fish”, é profundamente simbólico. O “peixe sonhado” representa algo que escapa — um ideal, uma memória, um lar que não se pode habitar por completo. O peixe também é um símbolo de movimento, de oceano, de ancestralidade polinésia. Ele flutua entre mundos — como a própria voz poética da autora — tentando se ancorar, mas sempre em deslocamento. É um símbolo de esperança, mas também de desejo não saciado.
Para quem tiver interesse vou indicar um vídeo da autora, recitando um de seus poemas. Não está nessa coletânea que li, mas me ajudou a entender os ritmos dos poemas dela.
https://youtu.be/XFyEfD4zQCQ?si=UT3y7...
Dream Fish Floating de Karlo Mila. New Zealand: Huia Publishers, 2005. 100p. Leitura de Abril 2025.
and I wonder in this blue
eyed world where I will find shoes that fit my wide feet
that aren’t jandals.
I will hide in the hollow of
your heart
and sing the sacred song
to your spirit
I will tickle your toes
and the whole forest will
quake
with your laughter
March 4, 2019
Mila Karlo’s poetry is intimate and pointed. Confronting colonialism, racism, and sexism, she mixes history, culture, and language to create a visceral experience. Her use of common Tongan and Samoan vocabulary and phrases makes the words feel personal and familiar, yet disorienting for those who don’t speak those languages (people often of western colonizer heritage). This confusion develops a space in which outsiders can begin to understand the depths of dissolution and invalidation that these communities have felt for generations. The poetry breathes of an ancestral legacy voicing the ravages of early colonizers, infused with the modern narrative of camouflaged or subconscious oppression and racism that continues today in Polynesia. As a woman of Tongan-Samoan-Maori-Palangi heritage, Karlo stands up in defiance of suppression and stereotype to bring a voice to those often neglected in poetry and fiction. The questions posed are penetrating and disturbing. The poems use this backdrop to delve into universal themes of love, companionship, and family. After buying this collection at a used bookstore in Hawaii, I was at times overwhelmed by the soulful combination of words and their message of hope for overlooked communities.
January 6, 2014
Themes of culture, identity, sexuality and equality.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews