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Iep Jāltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter
As the seas rise, the fight intensifies to save the Pacific Ocean’s Marshall Islands from being devoured by the waters around them. At the same time, activists are raising their poetic voices against decades of colonialism, environmental destruction, and social injustice.
Marshallese poet and activist Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner’s writing highlights the traumas of colonialism, racism, forced migration, the legacy of American nuclear testing, and the impending threats of climate change. Bearing witness at the front lines of various activist movements inspires her work and has propelled her poetry onto international stages, where she has performed in front of audiences ranging from elementary school students to more than a hundred world leaders at the United Nations Climate Summit.
The poet connects us to Marshallese daily life and tradition, likening her poetry to a basket and its essential materials. Her cultural roots and her family provides the thick fiber, the structure of the basket. Her diasporic upbringing is the material which wraps around the fiber, an essential layer to the structure of her experiences. And her passion for justice and change, the passion which brings her to the front lines of activist movements—is the stitching that binds these two experiences together.
Iep Jāltok will make history as the first published book of poetry written by a Marshallese author, and it ushers in an important new voice for justice.
Marshallese poet and activist Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner’s writing highlights the traumas of colonialism, racism, forced migration, the legacy of American nuclear testing, and the impending threats of climate change. Bearing witness at the front lines of various activist movements inspires her work and has propelled her poetry onto international stages, where she has performed in front of audiences ranging from elementary school students to more than a hundred world leaders at the United Nations Climate Summit.
The poet connects us to Marshallese daily life and tradition, likening her poetry to a basket and its essential materials. Her cultural roots and her family provides the thick fiber, the structure of the basket. Her diasporic upbringing is the material which wraps around the fiber, an essential layer to the structure of her experiences. And her passion for justice and change, the passion which brings her to the front lines of activist movements—is the stitching that binds these two experiences together.
Iep Jāltok will make history as the first published book of poetry written by a Marshallese author, and it ushers in an important new voice for justice.
86 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 14, 2017
17 people are currently reading
788 people want to read
About the author
Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner
6 books19 followersKathy Jetñil-Kijiner is a Marshall Islander poet, performance artist, educator. She received international acclaim through her poetry performance at the opening of the United Nations Climate Summit in New York in 2014. Her writing and performances have been featured by CNN, Democracy Now, the Huffington Post, NBC News, National Geographic, and more. In February 2017, the University of Arizona Press published her first collection of poetry, Iep Jāltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter.
Kathy also co-founded the youth environmentalist non-profit Jo-Jikum dedicated to empowering Marshallese youth to seek solutions to climate change and other environmental impacts threatening their home island. Kathy has been selected as one of 13 Climate Warriors by Vogue in 2015 and the Impact Hero of the Year by Earth Company in 2016. She received her Master’s in Pacific Island Studies from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
Kathy also co-founded the youth environmentalist non-profit Jo-Jikum dedicated to empowering Marshallese youth to seek solutions to climate change and other environmental impacts threatening their home island. Kathy has been selected as one of 13 Climate Warriors by Vogue in 2015 and the Impact Hero of the Year by Earth Company in 2016. She received her Master’s in Pacific Island Studies from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 96 reviews
July 2, 2017
I came to Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner's poetry through the radio program Living on Earth, which featured her performing her poem "Tell Them." It was early morning and I was half asleep, but the poem got its hooks in me, and as soon as she finished, I went to the Living on Earth website so I could read it and hear it again, and from there to Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner's website, and from there to buying this book.
These poems are so moving. The combination of strong feeling, vivid images, serious topics, and language, language, language. A number of poems are about climate change: the author's home in the Marshall Islands is directly, immediately threatened by climate change. But she also has one, "History Project," about the history of nuclear bomb testing in the Marshall Islands. This is a topic I've read about, so I knew the horrors the poem was going to share, but even knowing. Wow. The knifelike irony of her last line in that poem ("and I lost.")
So buy this book--it is a treasure--but also, go to Youtube and see Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner performing these poems, because they live and breathe in a special way when she does.
These poems are so moving. The combination of strong feeling, vivid images, serious topics, and language, language, language. A number of poems are about climate change: the author's home in the Marshall Islands is directly, immediately threatened by climate change. But she also has one, "History Project," about the history of nuclear bomb testing in the Marshall Islands. This is a topic I've read about, so I knew the horrors the poem was going to share, but even knowing. Wow. The knifelike irony of her last line in that poem ("and I lost.")
So buy this book--it is a treasure--but also, go to Youtube and see Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner performing these poems, because they live and breathe in a special way when she does.
February 27, 2023
This was outstanding. A collection of poems drawn from the life of the author, and the history of the Marshall Islands, it contrasts the forced emigration of the Islanders so that their home could be made into an atomic testing ground, with the possibility of another forced emigration in the future, as climate change raises sea levels and destroys what's left of their home. There's a consistent sense here of dislocation, of a people and a culture being simply discarded for the greater good of everyone else, and it's enormously affecting and thoroughly enraging. This is going on the "must get a hard copy of my own" list, because in a few months I won't have access to the university library where I found the copy I've just read, and I know I'm going to want to read this again.
May 6, 2022
Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner első és egyelőre egyetlen verseskötete mintha pontosan arra készült volna, hogy világolvasásokba illesszék. Arra való, hogy arcokat és hangokat adjon annak a területnek, amely a világ túlnyomó részének számára pusztán statisztikai adat, ha tudnak róla egyáltalán.
Nagyon jó versek ezek. Akár néhány széthulló szóból, akár több oldalas monológokból építkeznek.
Részletes értékelés a blogon:
https://gyujtogeto-alkoto.blog.hu/202...
Nagyon jó versek ezek. Akár néhány széthulló szóból, akár több oldalas monológokból építkeznek.
Részletes értékelés a blogon:
https://gyujtogeto-alkoto.blog.hu/202...
April 30, 2020
I flip through snapshots
of american marines and nurses branded
white with bloated grins sucking
beers and tossing beach balls along
our shores
and my islanders ancestors, cross-legged
before a general listening
to his fairy tale
about how it's
for the goog of mankind
to hand over our islands
let them blast
radioactive energy
into our sleepy coconut trees
our sagging breasfruit trees
our busy fishes that sparkle like new sun
into our coral reefs
brilliant as an aurora borealis woven
beneath a glassy sea
God will thank you they told us
March 16, 2025
reading around the world one book at a time 2025: marshall islands
a rare poetry book shows itself in my reading list!
on one hand it’s pretty difficult to find books from the small island states, especially those of micronesia, so the choice was pretty forced; at the same time this is the first published book of poetry and i really wanted to read it once i found out its main themes — the author explores the results of colonialism, US hegemony on the country and forced migration, racism and climate change
she experiments with free verse and the visual typesetting of her poems: one of my favourites was probably the one framing the entire book, a calligram of a pregnant person, representing not only the role of motherhood in the matrilineal marshallese society, but also the titular iep jāltok, an open basket, said of young girls who are there to serve their own family, represented in the poem with a specularity that underlines the richness of the life mothers (and figuratively the island, represented by its mother goddess) give as well as the way they’re exploited and used up for as long as they can give and give and give
a rare poetry book shows itself in my reading list!
on one hand it’s pretty difficult to find books from the small island states, especially those of micronesia, so the choice was pretty forced; at the same time this is the first published book of poetry and i really wanted to read it once i found out its main themes — the author explores the results of colonialism, US hegemony on the country and forced migration, racism and climate change
she experiments with free verse and the visual typesetting of her poems: one of my favourites was probably the one framing the entire book, a calligram of a pregnant person, representing not only the role of motherhood in the matrilineal marshallese society, but also the titular iep jāltok, an open basket, said of young girls who are there to serve their own family, represented in the poem with a specularity that underlines the richness of the life mothers (and figuratively the island, represented by its mother goddess) give as well as the way they’re exploited and used up for as long as they can give and give and give
May 30, 2023
This collection was a revelation: accomplished poems that brought home to me the way the Marshallese and their archipelago have been used and abused, and how precarious their future is with climate change.
July 3, 2022
it was the stories and images contained in these poems, more than the style of writing, that struck me the most—although the writing is quite good (i have pretty particular tastes when it comes to poetry).
don't have the book on hand so i can't put down the names of the ones that really hit, but so many of them did, and there's a lot to be explored in the craft. i especially remember the one about spam and hunger, and the one about laura ingalls wilder (the little house books were my favorite growing up, so i just really resonated with the experience of realizing how problematic they are). if i remember to, i will try and update this review when i'm reunited with my book!
i also really like when the poems in a collection speak to each other, thematically and structurally and literarily, and jetnil-kijiner's IEP JALTOK excels at that. i really think this is one of those books that everyone should read at one point or another.
don't have the book on hand so i can't put down the names of the ones that really hit, but so many of them did, and there's a lot to be explored in the craft. i especially remember the one about spam and hunger, and the one about laura ingalls wilder (the little house books were my favorite growing up, so i just really resonated with the experience of realizing how problematic they are). if i remember to, i will try and update this review when i'm reunited with my book!
i also really like when the poems in a collection speak to each other, thematically and structurally and literarily, and jetnil-kijiner's IEP JALTOK excels at that. i really think this is one of those books that everyone should read at one point or another.
May 25, 2024
I can have a difficult time getting into poetry, but this felt accessible for me. I also really appreciated learning about Marshallese culture and history, which isn't something I was familiar with. I highly recommend this, whether or not you usually read poetry.
July 13, 2025
This collection covered so much, including discussions of Marshallese identity, generational trauma, climate change, and the impact of the USA conducting nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands during the 40s and 50s. I would recommend watching the author reading one of her poems, 'Dear Matafele Peinam', at the 2014 UN Climate Summit - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc_Ig...
January 19, 2023
This was my read the world selection for Marshall Islands.
The only book I could find that was written by a Marshallese author was this book of poetry. Poetry is not at all my “thing”, so I feel a bit all at sea writing a review 😳
Although a few of these were beyond my non-poetic mind and had me slightly baffled, for the most part I found these quite accessible. I liked the author’s use of type spacing to create shapes and patterns in some of her poems.
I very much appreciated the author’s poems about the nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands and it’s aftermath as well as the impact (and future impact) of climate change on her homeland, which were quite powerful.
I feel that this poetry collection would appeal to those interested in environmental issues, particularly as it comes from someone whose country is under immediate threat. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5.
The only book I could find that was written by a Marshallese author was this book of poetry. Poetry is not at all my “thing”, so I feel a bit all at sea writing a review 😳
Although a few of these were beyond my non-poetic mind and had me slightly baffled, for the most part I found these quite accessible. I liked the author’s use of type spacing to create shapes and patterns in some of her poems.
I very much appreciated the author’s poems about the nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands and it’s aftermath as well as the impact (and future impact) of climate change on her homeland, which were quite powerful.
I feel that this poetry collection would appeal to those interested in environmental issues, particularly as it comes from someone whose country is under immediate threat. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5.
November 3, 2023
So it happened. I found a poetry book I cannot stop thinking about. I found a poetry collection that made me stop and find Lexx and make him listen to the poems I had just read. I found poetry that connected.
Not all of this book did it for me. There were certain poems that I just did not have the cultural experience or understanding to connect with. But I appreciated them and their teachings.
But others. Others about colonialism, nuclear testing, racism both from within and outside the Pacific communities, climate change and impacts, health issues within Indigenous communities, internalised racism, politics... they all resonated. And at times resonated with a punch to the gut.
And that is not to say this tiny book is bleak. It is funny and insightful, it just doesn't gloss over the massive impacts that the Marshall Islands (which includes Bikini Atoll for those of us old enough to remember that name. I didn't know that until this book) have experienced over the past 150 years or so.
I have never understood 'modern' poetry before. It can pretty, but why not write prose? But this is a collection that shows why you use poetry as a medium, where a perfect phrase and no other fluff, structured in the simplest way is art with words, and sometime literally is art with words.
I'll be thinking about these poems for a long time.
Not all of this book did it for me. There were certain poems that I just did not have the cultural experience or understanding to connect with. But I appreciated them and their teachings.
But others. Others about colonialism, nuclear testing, racism both from within and outside the Pacific communities, climate change and impacts, health issues within Indigenous communities, internalised racism, politics... they all resonated. And at times resonated with a punch to the gut.
And that is not to say this tiny book is bleak. It is funny and insightful, it just doesn't gloss over the massive impacts that the Marshall Islands (which includes Bikini Atoll for those of us old enough to remember that name. I didn't know that until this book) have experienced over the past 150 years or so.
I have never understood 'modern' poetry before. It can pretty, but why not write prose? But this is a collection that shows why you use poetry as a medium, where a perfect phrase and no other fluff, structured in the simplest way is art with words, and sometime literally is art with words.
I'll be thinking about these poems for a long time.
June 29, 2024
Really good and incredibly moving, especially the final third. Can highly recommend to anyone wanting to read more from Oceania/poetry about climate change.
My favorite poems were (in no particular order):
On the Couch With Bubu Neien
Tell Them
Crash
History Project
With History Project being especially gutting to read, about how the Marshall Islands were basically used as a testing facility for radioactivity, causing irreperable damage for the people for generations:
"God will thank you they told us
yea
as if God Himself
ordained
those powdered flakes
to drift
onto our skin hair eyes
to seep into our bones
We mistook radioactive fallout
for snow
God will thank you they told us”
- History Project
My favorite poems were (in no particular order):
On the Couch With Bubu Neien
Tell Them
Crash
History Project
With History Project being especially gutting to read, about how the Marshall Islands were basically used as a testing facility for radioactivity, causing irreperable damage for the people for generations:
"God will thank you they told us
yea
as if God Himself
ordained
those powdered flakes
to drift
onto our skin hair eyes
to seep into our bones
We mistook radioactive fallout
for snow
God will thank you they told us”
- History Project
September 5, 2025
Poems that are a cry to action for the Marshall Islands. Exploring historical abuse from America with nuclear testing and colonialism, erasure of identities outside of Hawaii and the threat of climate change and sea levels becomimg level with the islands. My favourite poems explored family, legacy and identity with strength and pride in the face of destruction and illness.
July 12, 2020
3.5 In this one small poetry book based on the author’s homeland, I have learned so much about the Marshall Islands. It’s history of being a testing ground for nuclear weapons to its future of disappearing with climate change and everything in between.
May 31, 2022
This is a collection of poems that tell stories of people from the Marshall Islands. They each teach the history of the islands, from the nuclear testing to the effect of climate change, as well as personal stories of the author's family members.
I loved the structure of the collection, each part focusing on a specific theme, history, culture shock, racism, and climate change. These poems also contain a good portion in Marshallese, to reflect the union and clash of the two cultures. While I don't know Marshallese, I felt like it didn't detract from my experience at all. It is all very easy to understand and a lot of the poems left me with a lot to think about.
I'd highly recommend this collection, especially if you're interested in non-fiction poetry. I found it a very accessible way to learn about a part of the world that I didn't know much about before reading it.
I loved the structure of the collection, each part focusing on a specific theme, history, culture shock, racism, and climate change. These poems also contain a good portion in Marshallese, to reflect the union and clash of the two cultures. While I don't know Marshallese, I felt like it didn't detract from my experience at all. It is all very easy to understand and a lot of the poems left me with a lot to think about.
I'd highly recommend this collection, especially if you're interested in non-fiction poetry. I found it a very accessible way to learn about a part of the world that I didn't know much about before reading it.
February 8, 2024
This was a read for my reading challenge #readingoceania2024. This title represented the Marshall Islands. This was truly an eye opening read
January 14, 2025
Absolutely stunning!
January 28, 2025
Read around the world project - Marshall Islands
3.5/5 stars
3.5/5 stars
February 26, 2025
*4.25*
October 24, 2025
wow! både trist og håbefuld
April 23, 2025
In sommige van haar gedichten grijpt ze terug op oude volksverhalen, waarin naast het Engels ook de Marshallese taal te zien is. De meeste verzen gaan over het leven van nu. Het belangrijkste onderwerp is klimaatverandering, want de stijging van de zeespiegel raakt deze mensen als eerste.
https://lalageleest.nl/2025/04/22/lee...
https://lalageleest.nl/2025/04/22/lee...
August 17, 2023
This is a powerful book of poetry by a writer and climate activist from the Marshall Islands.
The poems reckon with the legacy of colonialism, from an epidemic of cancers caused by US nuclear testing to internalized racism to rising sea levels caused by climate change. They also weave together Marshallese cultural traditions and stories with resistance to colonialism, imperialism, and climate breakdown.
This is an incredible book, highly recommended!
The poems reckon with the legacy of colonialism, from an epidemic of cancers caused by US nuclear testing to internalized racism to rising sea levels caused by climate change. They also weave together Marshallese cultural traditions and stories with resistance to colonialism, imperialism, and climate breakdown.
This is an incredible book, highly recommended!
November 18, 2017
“baam̧ (baham). From Engl. 2(inf, tr
-e) 3,4,6(-i). Bomb. As in
Kobaam̧ ke?
Are you contaminated
with radioactive fallout?”
(“The letter B is for”)
-e) 3,4,6(-i). Bomb. As in
Kobaam̧ ke?
Are you contaminated
with radioactive fallout?”
(“The letter B is for”)
September 2, 2022
I really enjoyed this short collection. The author's use of form is extremely effective, as is her combinatorial use of the personal-specific and the cultural-broad. I felt I was reading an in equal parts enjoyable and devastating microcosm of a culture and a place that I don't know very much about, but that I was given an open invitation to further explore. Some pieces were more heavy-handed than others, but none so much to dampen my enjoyment, and the stark sincerity of the Bianca, parenthood, and family cycles were well-worth any obviousness. I would read more by this poet with delight.
March 26, 2021
"The sail
that powers
the Marshallese canoe
feeds our family
fights our wars
claims our land
visits clans
came from
a Mother"
that powers
the Marshallese canoe
feeds our family
fights our wars
claims our land
visits clans
came from
a Mother"
June 10, 2025
“A basket whose opening is facing the speaker.”
On the matrilineal society of the Marshallese, women as the wealth of the family, “Girls continue the lineage.”
HOOKED (pp. 14 – 18) has particular edge and urgency (this is the rhythm I read the specific words in):
even after […] even after […] even after […] even then
[…] he never
[…] stopped
I did not know of the history of nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands, so was ultimately a little lost reading THE LETTER B IS FOR where there is a reference to bombs. HISTORY PROJECT, the poem that follows, contextualized it for me.
“At fifteen I decide
to do my history project
on nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands
time to learn my own history”
I can only draw parallels between the letters flying in from America, protesting animal abuse to white liberals concentrating on the animals in Gaza, rather than the settler project itself.
HISTORY PROJECT was very wrenching to read through.
FLYING TO MAKIKI STREET reads like a letter.
“My cousin is bullying / dede you’re so stupid / dede you’re so useless /
other times she cuts/ straight thru bone / dede you’re as white / white /
white as they come / i mean what other marshallese writes /
poetry and plays piano”
similar to the thoughts
from Trickster Academy, thoughts on how to be, how to fit mold, how to be person you identify as
ON THE COUCH WITH BŪBŪ NEIEN
“English syllables accent
the walls of my voice, pronounce me
Ashamed
so I bury my native tongue I feel as though I can relate
beneath a borrowed one” when I speak Russian better than Azerbaijani
It’s interesting how the language seems to be the autonomous entity – it’s the English language that is dictating, not her.
LESSONS FROM HAWAI’I
“when they” and “That’s how I learned” being in repetition has me feeling like a narrative is being pounded into my head. I assume that’s what her lived experience felt like. All the short lines, few words per row — it feels like quick steps across years. Similar learnings every year.
JUST A ROCK on generational, perceptive disconnect.
CAMPAIGNING IN AUR is very connected to the central theme on matrilineal societies. On the mother, aunt, grandmother, cousin, other aunty, other aunty, the mother of mothers.
“And this is my cousin and I
[…]
we fall asleep as girls
listening to the women the women the women
talkingwhisperinglaughing
we fall asleep and dream
the women we hope to one day be"
This was so heart felt and I can’t help but think of the women in my life and wanting to be like mama, nene, and teta. This might be my favourite one of the book.
TELL THEM
“Tell them we are sweet harmonies
of grandmothers mothers aunties sisters—
songs late into night”
But most importantly you tell them
we don’t want to leave
we’ve never wanted to leave
and that we
are nothing
without our islands”
TELL THEM is especially on the outsider’s responsibility – the imperialist’s accountability. On the periphery of the Marshall Islands, it is your responsibility to say this beauty comes from the Marshall Islands, but listen, you cannot simply take and not speak, not speak of the climate disasters that will rampage the islands where this jewelry you like comes from.
DEAR MATAFELE PEINAM speaks to radical hope. When the world feels like it’s going to crash and burn remember DEAR MATAFELE PEINAM and how we’re all doing, organizing, pushing. How those with the least power will ultimately try their hardest, so we must too, as those in the imperial core and the belly of the beast.
On the matrilineal society of the Marshallese, women as the wealth of the family, “Girls continue the lineage.”
HOOKED (pp. 14 – 18) has particular edge and urgency (this is the rhythm I read the specific words in):
even after […] even after […] even after […] even then
[…] he never
[…] stopped
I did not know of the history of nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands, so was ultimately a little lost reading THE LETTER B IS FOR where there is a reference to bombs. HISTORY PROJECT, the poem that follows, contextualized it for me.
“At fifteen I decide
to do my history project
on nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands
time to learn my own history”
I can only draw parallels between the letters flying in from America, protesting animal abuse to white liberals concentrating on the animals in Gaza, rather than the settler project itself.
HISTORY PROJECT was very wrenching to read through.
FLYING TO MAKIKI STREET reads like a letter.
“My cousin is bullying / dede you’re so stupid / dede you’re so useless /
other times she cuts/ straight thru bone / dede you’re as white / white /
white as they come / i mean what other marshallese writes /
poetry and plays piano”
similar to the thoughts
from Trickster Academy, thoughts on how to be, how to fit mold, how to be person you identify as
ON THE COUCH WITH BŪBŪ NEIEN
“English syllables accent
the walls of my voice, pronounce me
Ashamed
so I bury my native tongue I feel as though I can relate
beneath a borrowed one” when I speak Russian better than Azerbaijani
It’s interesting how the language seems to be the autonomous entity – it’s the English language that is dictating, not her.
LESSONS FROM HAWAI’I
“when they” and “That’s how I learned” being in repetition has me feeling like a narrative is being pounded into my head. I assume that’s what her lived experience felt like. All the short lines, few words per row — it feels like quick steps across years. Similar learnings every year.
JUST A ROCK on generational, perceptive disconnect.
CAMPAIGNING IN AUR is very connected to the central theme on matrilineal societies. On the mother, aunt, grandmother, cousin, other aunty, other aunty, the mother of mothers.
“And this is my cousin and I
[…]
we fall asleep as girls
listening to the women the women the women
talkingwhisperinglaughing
we fall asleep and dream
the women we hope to one day be"
This was so heart felt and I can’t help but think of the women in my life and wanting to be like mama, nene, and teta. This might be my favourite one of the book.
TELL THEM
“Tell them we are sweet harmonies
of grandmothers mothers aunties sisters—
songs late into night”
But most importantly you tell them
we don’t want to leave
we’ve never wanted to leave
and that we
are nothing
without our islands”
TELL THEM is especially on the outsider’s responsibility – the imperialist’s accountability. On the periphery of the Marshall Islands, it is your responsibility to say this beauty comes from the Marshall Islands, but listen, you cannot simply take and not speak, not speak of the climate disasters that will rampage the islands where this jewelry you like comes from.
DEAR MATAFELE PEINAM speaks to radical hope. When the world feels like it’s going to crash and burn remember DEAR MATAFELE PEINAM and how we’re all doing, organizing, pushing. How those with the least power will ultimately try their hardest, so we must too, as those in the imperial core and the belly of the beast.
July 6, 2021
I’ve read about a dozen poetry collections for my Read the World Project and I still think it’s an often interesting way to get a snapshot of a poets culture and interests. I think that Iep Jāltok is one of my favourite, and the best, collections I’ve read in a while.
The style of the poems differ. Some are in simple stanzas, others the words meander across the page or is just one big paragraph. There’s a few that are concrete poetry – written in the shape of a boat or a pot.
I knew nothing about the Marshall Islands before picking up Iep Jāltok and even now I still know very little. The poem “History Project” (which is also the name of one of the four sections of the collection) is about how when Jetn̄il-Kijiner was in school she researched how the United States conducted nuclear testing on the Marshall Islands. That in and of itself is something that I never knew about but how the poem goes into the images and statistics she found, the lasting effects on generations of people from the radiation, how Americans protested animals being used as guineapigs but not the people of the islands – it’s all so sad, horrible, but also not that surprising when you consider the history of the USA. It’s a really effective poem and after that one there’s mention of radiation and the sickness it caused in members of Jetn̄il-Kijiner’s family in other poems.
It’s the poems about the history of the Marshall Islands, its people and the effect climate is having on them that I really liked. There are poems about how the Marshallese are lumped together with other people from different small island countries in the Pacific Ocean. The racism Jetn̄il-Kijiner has experienced and how she feels that she and her people are forgotten by the rest of the world – especially when it comes to climate change. “Two Degrees” is about how the increase in temperature of two degrees will affect the Marshall Islands, and how the rising sea levels is already flooding the islands. Terms like rising sea levels often seem abstract and hard to comprehend, whether because you live away from the coast or it’s genuinely hard to image a beach or land no longer being above water. Having the effects of climate change laid out in a poem makes it seem so simple and real.
Iep Jāltok is a thought-provoking poetry collection with a lot of powerful poems. It shows history and issues from a point of view I had not seen before and demonstrates how unfortunately universal things like racism and climate change affect people differently when they’re from different communities.
The style of the poems differ. Some are in simple stanzas, others the words meander across the page or is just one big paragraph. There’s a few that are concrete poetry – written in the shape of a boat or a pot.
I knew nothing about the Marshall Islands before picking up Iep Jāltok and even now I still know very little. The poem “History Project” (which is also the name of one of the four sections of the collection) is about how when Jetn̄il-Kijiner was in school she researched how the United States conducted nuclear testing on the Marshall Islands. That in and of itself is something that I never knew about but how the poem goes into the images and statistics she found, the lasting effects on generations of people from the radiation, how Americans protested animals being used as guineapigs but not the people of the islands – it’s all so sad, horrible, but also not that surprising when you consider the history of the USA. It’s a really effective poem and after that one there’s mention of radiation and the sickness it caused in members of Jetn̄il-Kijiner’s family in other poems.
It’s the poems about the history of the Marshall Islands, its people and the effect climate is having on them that I really liked. There are poems about how the Marshallese are lumped together with other people from different small island countries in the Pacific Ocean. The racism Jetn̄il-Kijiner has experienced and how she feels that she and her people are forgotten by the rest of the world – especially when it comes to climate change. “Two Degrees” is about how the increase in temperature of two degrees will affect the Marshall Islands, and how the rising sea levels is already flooding the islands. Terms like rising sea levels often seem abstract and hard to comprehend, whether because you live away from the coast or it’s genuinely hard to image a beach or land no longer being above water. Having the effects of climate change laid out in a poem makes it seem so simple and real.
Iep Jāltok is a thought-provoking poetry collection with a lot of powerful poems. It shows history and issues from a point of view I had not seen before and demonstrates how unfortunately universal things like racism and climate change affect people differently when they’re from different communities.
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December 23, 2022Between 1946 and 1958, the United States detonated twenty-three nuclear weapons on Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, including a hydrogen bomb called Bravo that was 1,000 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. (Did you know that’s how the swimsuit got its name? When the two-piece style made its initial appearance, one fashion designer hoped the style would explode onto the scene and linked its name to the recent explosions on Bikini.) And Bikini wasn’t the only atoll used for weapons testing. During that time, sixty-seven nuclear bombs were detonated in the area, and other munitions testing was conducted as well. A 3,000-year-old culture, the Marshallese now have some of the highest rates of cancer, miscarriage, thyroid conditions, and other acute and chronic health concerns in the world. The Marshall Islands are a sovereign state, but many Marshallese, including poet and activist Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijner, live in U.S. states like Oregon, Arkansas, and Hawaii. Jetn̄il-Kijner’s Iep Jāltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter (University of Arizona Press) tells of growing up Marshallese in the United States and her eventual return to the islands of her lineage. The book details the ways the fallout from military occupations, mid-century weapons testing, and modern-day climate change have shaped the lives and the landscapes of the Marshallese people. The breadfruit trees and the coconuts and the reefs and the fish and the reeds and the language and songs of the Marshall Islands are at the center of these poems. Even the stones are gods.
Review published originally with Orion Magazine: https://orionmagazine.org/2021/05/ten...
Review published originally with Orion Magazine: https://orionmagazine.org/2021/05/ten...
April 8, 2023
“But most importantly, you tell them
We don’t want to leave
We’ve never wanted to leave
And that we
Are nothing
Without our islands”
I had the experience of getting to see Kathy Jetnil-Kijner perform some of her poems at my high school about a year ago, and have only now gotten around to reading this whole book. I regret not reading it sooner because this was absolutely amazing.
Kathy’s work is incredible and extremely emotional to say the least. Her poems discuss everything from the history in the Marshall Islands to racism in the U.S. to the repercussions the Marshallese people have to face generations later from the nuclear tests conducted by the U.S. military. The works portray the heartbreak of losing people to cancer brought on by the radiation effects, the frustration of feeling invisible as a small island nation on the front lines of climate change, and so much more.
If you’ve live or have lived in the Marshall Islands, read this. If you’ve never heard of them before now, read this. If you can read, read this.
I do plan to read it again and spend some time annotating and analyzing it, so I may update this review, maybe not, we’ll see. But yeah, her work and activism with climate change inspires me a lot to work in a science field studying and working to prevent global warming from drowning out communities across the world. This book has also made me think that maybe I am a fan of poetry after all.
We don’t want to leave
We’ve never wanted to leave
And that we
Are nothing
Without our islands”
I had the experience of getting to see Kathy Jetnil-Kijner perform some of her poems at my high school about a year ago, and have only now gotten around to reading this whole book. I regret not reading it sooner because this was absolutely amazing.
Kathy’s work is incredible and extremely emotional to say the least. Her poems discuss everything from the history in the Marshall Islands to racism in the U.S. to the repercussions the Marshallese people have to face generations later from the nuclear tests conducted by the U.S. military. The works portray the heartbreak of losing people to cancer brought on by the radiation effects, the frustration of feeling invisible as a small island nation on the front lines of climate change, and so much more.
If you’ve live or have lived in the Marshall Islands, read this. If you’ve never heard of them before now, read this. If you can read, read this.
I do plan to read it again and spend some time annotating and analyzing it, so I may update this review, maybe not, we’ll see. But yeah, her work and activism with climate change inspires me a lot to work in a science field studying and working to prevent global warming from drowning out communities across the world. This book has also made me think that maybe I am a fan of poetry after all.
September 18, 2021
I heard about this book from doing a deep search into contemporary Fijian poetry (which has thus far been fruitless). My knowledge of the Marshall Islands was limited, and I was surprised to find this has been the first book of poetry published by a Marshall Islander, in 2017. My memory of learning about the islands in school was quickly jogged from Kathy's immersive references to nuclear testing at the hands of American soldiers. Bikini Atoll holds a similar vague place in my memory from that time. I was not prepared for the serious history lesson I got from reading this book. Kathy is not writing a textbook for ignorant people such as myself; in fact, these poems are quick, fuelled by capable storytelling and a confident, casual tone. Kathy brings the reader in on her perspective, showing rather than telling the reader how to think – and by doing so, the injustices her people have faced become imaginable and terrible. The reader's newfound insight informs their emotional reaction to these poems. From the first poem to the last, Kathy is gathering us in through the form of a poem in the shape of a basket. We are invited to look in; then, guided safely out. We are the wiser for it. (8/30)
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