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Rustlings
Dreamy and playful, Gabrielle Tse's debut pamphlet Rustlings speaks to memory and domesticity, maintaining a balletic lightness above fractures in language and heritage. With all its subtle sounds and textures, Rustlings is a sensuous exploration of the absences and complications of daily life.
'What is remarkable is that Gabrielle Tse’s poems already possess such a mature voice. This is rich and formally inventive poetry with dynamic descriptions. Her first poem states, ‘Hurry: each day is taut and newly-spun’ – yes, isn’t it just, and doesn’t she capture just that.' - Niall Campbell
'An elusive, suggestive and beautiful debut, Tse’s poems are like threads ravelling up into a silk dress, or a ribbon tying tight around your neck.' - James Appleby
'What is remarkable is that Gabrielle Tse’s poems already possess such a mature voice. This is rich and formally inventive poetry with dynamic descriptions. Her first poem states, ‘Hurry: each day is taut and newly-spun’ – yes, isn’t it just, and doesn’t she capture just that.' - Niall Campbell
'An elusive, suggestive and beautiful debut, Tse’s poems are like threads ravelling up into a silk dress, or a ribbon tying tight around your neck.' - James Appleby
36 pages, Paperback
Published April 3, 2025
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 26, 2025
"You wake thinking of surrender, / a berry-soft word, all sweetness and decay" ("Legerdemain," 15).
A splendid selection of poems by a delightful author. I look forward to future publications.
Reflections, duplication, dreams, shadows, the sea. An unravelling.
Gabby writes of the "touch-not-touch / of music" and this phenomenon pervades her verse as well. Something tender and lingering, the ghostly presence of words more real than real.
She celebrates the power of words, indulging in their creation and erasure in this pamphlet, but also acknowledges the slipperiness of language ("the small gasping thing / without a name"). There is an insistence on remedy, on bridging the gap between waking and dreaming; ignorance and understanding, as seen in "Sea dagger": "I will teach you what to say to me" (17). The poem itself ends with another revelation: "Clouds say it is morning." It seems the natural world or a human character is almost always calling out in Tse's work... but not always being understood.
Without recognition and comprehension, all words are rustlings from "the mouth / of a stranger."
This text charts togetherness and the angst of memory ("we heave and turn the past inside us"). Time and touch. I will be carrying these poems with me for many months to come. I cannot believe the launch for Rustlings was back in April! It feels like yesterday.
A splendid selection of poems by a delightful author. I look forward to future publications.
Reflections, duplication, dreams, shadows, the sea. An unravelling.
Gabby writes of the "touch-not-touch / of music" and this phenomenon pervades her verse as well. Something tender and lingering, the ghostly presence of words more real than real.
She celebrates the power of words, indulging in their creation and erasure in this pamphlet, but also acknowledges the slipperiness of language ("the small gasping thing / without a name"). There is an insistence on remedy, on bridging the gap between waking and dreaming; ignorance and understanding, as seen in "Sea dagger": "I will teach you what to say to me" (17). The poem itself ends with another revelation: "Clouds say it is morning." It seems the natural world or a human character is almost always calling out in Tse's work... but not always being understood.
Without recognition and comprehension, all words are rustlings from "the mouth / of a stranger."
This text charts togetherness and the angst of memory ("we heave and turn the past inside us"). Time and touch. I will be carrying these poems with me for many months to come. I cannot believe the launch for Rustlings was back in April! It feels like yesterday.
Displaying 1 of 1 review