Oceanic

by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

"Nezhukumatathil’s poems contain elegant twists of a very sharp knife. She writes about the natural world and how we live in it, filling each poem, each page with a true sense of wonder." —Roxane Gay

With inquisitive flair, Aimee Nezhukumatathil creates a thorough registry of the earth’s wonderful and terrible magic. In her fourth collection of poetry, she studies forms of love as diverse and abundant as the ocean itself. She brings to life a father penguin, a C-section scar, and the Niagara Falls with a powerful force of reverence for life and living things. With an encyclopedic range of subjects and unmatched sincerity, Oceanic speaks to each reader as a cooperative part of the earth, an extraordinary neighborhood to which we all belong.

Genres: Poetry, Nature, Nonfiction, Adult, Science, Environment, Animals

80 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 10, 2018

About the author

author of WORLD OF WONDERS: IN PRAISE OF FIREFLIES, WHALE SHARKS, AND OTHER ASTONISHMENTS (Milkweed 2020), and four collections of poetry, most recently, OCEANIC (Copper Canyon, 2018). Professor of English and Glitter, University of Mississippi.

Reviews

[Roxane · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a collection of vast wonder. As ever, Aimee Nezhukumatathil engages with the natural world, with love and passion, with motherhood, and does so gorgeously. These poems are oceanic individually and when collected as a whole. So much to admire here.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

As so much I'm reading of late, many of these poems concern threats of deportation and the attendant fear. Nezhukumatathil creates a vivid atmosphere. Also, her description of her teacher taking attendance and struggling with her name was both amusing and moving, since it becomes representative of all the struggles the narrator faces in belonging to her new world.

[Jerrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a lot of variety in this collection. Some poems were sensuous and unhurried. Others had great images of ocean life and the natural world. Some, like One-Star Reviews of the Taj Mahal, were funny and sad at the same time. Overall, these were enjoyable to read.

[Carey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved Aimee Nezhukumatathil's early collection Lucky Fish, so I was excited to dive into this later work, especially with the expectation that this work would focus on aquatic and animal life. While there were a few standout poems that captivated me, as a whole this didn’t resonate as deeply as I had hoped.

Nezhukumatathil’s writing style remains beautiful and evocative, with vibrant imagery and vivid explorations of distant places. Her ability to capture what it feels like to be out of place in so many different environments across different continents is poignant, and she excels at weaving themes of love and identity into her work.

That said, I found myself longing for a stronger connection to the natural world, particularly the oceanic themes I anticipated. Instead, the collection leaned more heavily on love poetry—undeniably well-crafted, but unexpected given my expectations for this book.

In the end, while this wasn’t the journey through nature I imagined, it’s still a testament to Nezhukumatathil’s talent. If you’re seeking poetry that celebrates love in its many forms with a touch of vibrant imagery and brief rumination on the natural world, this collection is worth exploring.

[Keith Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many things to like about this book -- not least, the choice to celebrate the world and the things of the world. Nezhukumatathil obviously knows things/creatures/plants (or at the very least has taken the time to look things up), and finds easy metaphors in them, ones she can run with for as far as her imagination can take her.

For instance "Chess" starts "Exactly four different men have tried/to teach me how to play." Direct statement. Within a couple of lines she has found "knight" and, of course, equates that with "night" which takes her into a third person love story in Ohio -- but with quiet chess images continuing through. And the poem ends

Every turn, every sacrificial
move--all the decoys, the castling,

the deflections--these will be both
riotous and unruly, the exact opposite
of what she thought she ever wanted
in the endgame of her days.

So, yes, this is crafted, carefully chosen, even through it's contentment at creating one small story. But it is a good story, one that touches on lots of people.

This is not a poetry that will make you lose sleep -- and some readers may find that a criticism. But it is a poetry that looks clearly at the world, at one woman's place in it, and finds humor and joy amid the tragedy. She chooses, in this book anyway, to celebrate that.

[Luke Gorham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Often surprising. Always linguistically assured. Maybe just...a little bit of a trifle? Or maybe I just read this amidst a period of gut-punch collections that made this feel somehow soft. Very much still plus on this though.

[Amorak Huey · Rating 5 out of 5]

"To everything there is a season of parrots. But instead of feathers we searched the sky for meteors on our last night."

This book is so good.

[Maria Reads · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think Aimee is a wonderful person, and there are many aspects of her writing that I enjoy. Without a doubt her writing is full of cheer, wonder, and joy. However, I found myself kinda bored with this collection. I tend to favor poets that write with risk, and urgency, so for me this is lacking a bit. There's no sense of immediacy here. These poems are fun, and happy, but if you're looking for something more meaningful, this may not be for you. Also, I get bored with poetry collections that don't change up the form or structure. If you're a reader that prefers political poets, this may not be for you.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some favorite lines:
from "Aubade with Cutlery and Crickets"
"the morning still full of starlight
and crickets when we said goodbye"

from "Invitation"
"Let's listen
how this planet hums with so much wing, fur, and fin."

[Rachel (Kalanadi) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Alex Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The poem "The Body," while not my favorite in Aimee Nezhukumatathil's collection, is representative of this book. It begins by talking about how sea stars rip themselves apart and then shifts to the speaker wishes to pull apart their arms because they keep reaching for things like "yellow houses" and "slow summers." The comparison with the sea stars gives a whole new dimension to the feeling of destructive yearning captured in the poem.

It seems cliche to have a book of poetry that is tied together by the theme of nature, but Nezhukumatathil uses that theme to give breath and depth to the emotions she explores in her poem. I was continually surprised and delighted by her takes on things like the Northern Lights and Niagara Falls and the whole ocean and the feeling of the South. My favorites were "In the Museum of Glass Flowers" and "Travel Mommy Ghazal."

I'm going to buy this book because I want to be able to turn back to these poems again and again to remember the delight and newness of the world through someone else's eyes. Phenomenal.

[Maryam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful poems! I’m not much into poems but this book is an exception and loved almost all poems :)

[Nique 💫 chroniqled ✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

beautiful, beautiful, beautiful! i only wish i could have annotated a physical copy rather than just reading an ebook 🥲🥲🥲

[Jonathan Tennis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked Lucky Fish and At the Drive-in Volcano more but this collection contains a lot of the aspects I enjoy about Nezhukumatathil’s poetry. Colorful imagery, distant places, what it’s like to be different in a sea of homogeneity and most importantly, love. She writes one helluva a love poem. My favorite poems in the collection were On Listening to Your Teacher Take Attendance, Two Moths, In the Museum of Glass Flowers, The Pepper Kingdom, One-Star Reviews of the Taj Mahal, and One-Star Reviews of the Great Wall of China.

“Who knows what / will happen next? If you still want to look up, I hope you see / the dark sky as oceanic, boundless, limitless—like all / the shades of blue revealed in a glacier. Let’s listen / how this planet hums with so much wing, fur, and fin.” – p. 29 (from Invitation)

[Gloria · Rating 4 out of 5]

With both reverence and curiosity, these poems create a strong connection between the marvels found in nature and instinctive family bonds. Ruminating on mankind’s relations with the natural world invites deep spirit-filled exploration beyond the surface of any ocean. The precarious nature of life, especially as affected by climate change, is illustrated again and again.

There are small contemplative lessons, reminders that there are significant possibilities for perceiving the world with new eyes. Innate emotions, perhaps repressed, can now be experienced anew. These quiet words create simple moments of sadness and joy, illustrating irrefutable connections in the natural world of families both on land and in water.

[Ruthie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the variety of format and tone in this poetry collection. My favorite poem was “When I Am Six”. If I had one complaint, I think some poems might have included added references to ocean related things, to make them cohesive with the collection. Though, I don’t think this was necessary to those individual poems.

Overall, I really enjoy Nezhukumatathil’s poetry, and I am excited to see her speak at my university next week!

[ameya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too many love poems, not enough poems about the ocean.

[Keerthana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love to see South Indian writers in the poetry realm! Thanks to my roommate Anna for this great find!

The author does a great job integrating oceanic wildlife into real life and personal instances. A diverse collection with lines that make you think for a bit.

Favorite poems: Bengal Tiger, Chess, Dangerous, Letter to the Northern Lights

[maddie marko · Rating 4 out of 5]

“fish-bright” poems full of ocean critters and love! read “Invitation” for a taste :-) other highlights include poems about the taj mahal and the great wall of china composed using one star reviews online— sooo brilliant! other faves— “End-of-Summer Haibun” and “Self-Portrait as Niagara Falls in Winter”
i’ve been falling out of the poetry-reading habit ever since i graduated… this was a welcome return! i read it slowly— a couple o’ poems before bed each night. would recommend.

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE Aimee Nezhukumatathil. Top tier poet. Top tier poetry.

[Dana Sweeney · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection was such an unexpected and refreshing mix of poems! When I began, I thought the collection was going to be tightly focused on working with ocean metaphors (the early poems that fit this pattern were the ones I connected with least). But as I read on, the thematic focus and style began to swing in really unexpected directions. Soon, we were delving into pregnancy (”I Could be a Whale Shark”), temptation (“This Sugar”), the pain of watching ex-lovers move on (“The Body”), Mississippi (“My South”), alienation (“On Listening to Your Teacher Take Attendance”), love worthy of poetry and, incredibly, done justice in poetry (“Letter to the Northern Lights,” the incredibly timely “Love in the Time of Swine Flu,” “First Time on the Funicular”). Two found poems, “One-Star Reviews of the Taj Mahal” and “One-Star Reviews of the Great Wall of China” came out of absolute nowhere and made me literally laugh out loud. It was delightful!

Nezhukumatathil is at her best when she writes, phenomenally, about love, romance, affection, desire, courtship, and sex. The second half of my copy is hopelessly dogeared as I folded down the corners of pages that left me in awe. It’s hard to do this kind of writing well, and she does it WELL.

I didn’t connect with many of the poems in the first half that felt more ethereally and heavy-handedly oceanic, but aquatic themes subtly and skillfully appear in some of the poems that I really enjoyed later on.

Overall, the further I read, the more my skepticism melted into amazement and joy. What a rare talent! Wanna read more.

[Courtney LeBlanc · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of poems that weave the ocean, sea life, and animals into larger themes such as love, motherhood and identity.

from The Body (my favorite poem in the collection): "Maybe I just want to rid myself // of knuckles so I can't knock on the door you now share / with another... See how / I accidentally brought you up again / when I picked up this nail, this hammer?"

from Chess: "Exactly four different men have tried / to teach me how to play. I could never / tell the difference between a rook / and bishop but I knew the horse meant // knight."

[Jasmine · Rating 5 out of 5]

4 or 4.5...not sure...I haven't calibrated my ratings for poetry. 4.5.

So lovely. Beautiful images. Some odd works toward the end of the collection. Oceanic theme faded toward the end, ended on an odd poem.

I'm getting back into reading poetry again, and am not a huge fan of abstraction. This had lush language, normal words and animals shaped into poems. Familiar, conversational even.

It made me want to float in saltwater.

[Twila Newey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started loving every poem, but they lost momentum for me near the end of the book. Still, this is such an effusive, life-affirming collection of poems I would recommend it to anyone. She clearly loves language and loves to play. I will certainly pick up her other work when I need a lift.

[Erika · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a fairly new reader of poetry and I loved this collection. I especially loved the poems that included lots of imagery of the natural world and it's watery inhabitants. I read a couple of poems every morning with coffee and it was a beautiful way to start the day.

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely to read this book with the sun on my face. So much delicious here.

[Carian · Rating 2 out of 5]

It just didn't speak to me.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars.

What a beautiful collection of poems that vividly paint Nezhukumatathil’s tender love for the world around her, particularly the natural world. Each poem feels so personal despite their vastness (the title is really fitting for this collection). The way she had so many of these poems embody the natural world in some shape or form—especially the ocean and its creatures—really heightens the intimacy that you might feel.

I loved the way she plays with words and meaning in her poems to connect back to certain ideas and emotions. One that stood out to me was from “Starfish and Coffee,” the poem ending like so: “to the bed where you lie: cheeks still rosy, / one hand still clutching a fistful of pillow, / hair tentacled over the side of the bed / your three hearts so full, so hungry, so purple.” It captures such a unique and stunning image that constantly appears throughout this collection that bristles with life. These images become all the more brilliant when she plays with sound on top of everything through alliteration that really reminds me of Seamus Heaney. “End-of-Summer Haibun” had an excellent example of this: “There / are not enough jam jars to can this summer sky at night.”

There were a lot of smaller themes running throughout this collection that all connected to bigger themes. Doing this, however, made the poems feel a little scattered, and there were some instances when I couldn’t quite follow why certain poems were included. With that said, it certainly didn’t take away from their overall lightness and beauty.

A complete aside, but some of these titles were very specific and interesting.

Some of my favorite poems: “On Listening to Your Teacher Take Attendance,” “from The Rambutan Notebooks,” “End-of-Summer Haibun,” “Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate One Second before Waking Up,” “Invitation,” “Letter to the Northern Lights,” and “Starfish and Coffee”

[Jennifer Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such an eclectic collection, I have to believe there'll be something for every poetry lover here. Filled with gorgeous images, thoughtful connections, and an appreciation of nature, the collection as a whole is one to simmer in and enjoy. My favorites here were the ones that centered on the ocean or played with structure, and I can see myself returning to a number of the poems in the future. A few had lines that were true kicks in the gut, where others felt like simple moments captured from the artist's own life, and the talent virtually bleeds from every page. I'm sure I'll be looking up more of the author's work.

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Notice my halo, how the craquelure in the paint
doesn't even diminish the shine. Notice how
fun it is to say craquelure."

I'm a big fan of how this poet constructs her verse. The flow of her words is nothing less than oceanic indeed — vast, deep, and rhythmic. The meanings of each poem were less relatable to me; I didn't have many *zing* moments of connection while reading this, which is rare for me. But it was still very enjoyable: I loved "The Falling: Four Who Have Intentionally Plunged Over Niagara Falls with the Hope of Surviving", "Meals of Grief & Happiness", "Venus Instructing Cupid to Torment Psyche", and both "One Star Reviews" found poems.

3.5/5