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Tidal
A powerful debut. Poetry that lifts from the ocean's depth.
Amari Utomo grieves the loss of the sea. Words, wave-like, locate and dislocate at once, pushing against the shorelines of meaning or submerging the voice where language estranges itself from its moorings. Utomo’s free verse emphasizes at once how difficult, and how necessary, it is for us to imagine our world as a system whose ecologies and cultures require us to care for all their interdependent parts. Formed in the sonic depth of poets Valentine Penrose, Arthur Sze, Rae Armantrout, and Braulio Arenas, Utomo’s transcendent fragments mourn the calving glaciers, the bleaching coral, the loss of sea life, and, in doing so, invites us to be alert to our own flow and fragility.
Amari Utomo grieves the loss of the sea. Words, wave-like, locate and dislocate at once, pushing against the shorelines of meaning or submerging the voice where language estranges itself from its moorings. Utomo’s free verse emphasizes at once how difficult, and how necessary, it is for us to imagine our world as a system whose ecologies and cultures require us to care for all their interdependent parts. Formed in the sonic depth of poets Valentine Penrose, Arthur Sze, Rae Armantrout, and Braulio Arenas, Utomo’s transcendent fragments mourn the calving glaciers, the bleaching coral, the loss of sea life, and, in doing so, invites us to be alert to our own flow and fragility.
173 pages, Paperback
Published August 29, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 19, 2020
Stunning writing about the ocean and the life in peril in and around it. The poems evoke emotion and provide rich visual detail.
September 14, 2020
A triumph of environmental awareness and striking leaps of language, this important collection by Amari Utomo carries us along a current of mourning and profound connection to the genesis of all life on Earth: the sea.
We grieve with him for the irreplaceable treasures we have lost, and continue to lose, while he keeps us under the spell of his poetic voice that is both delicate and vast, ethereal and powerfully human, echoing the ebb and flow and moods of the waters we fear and cherish. The style as imagery pays homage to beaches and oceans so fragile in the hands of an individualist world.
In each poem there is room to meditate, with flashes of vivid observations that often float, miraculously, in the mind. In "Earth Dome" he writes:
"Because I want you
behind the waves.
When the universe
is full of ripples.
Behind parallel lines,
her furious salts.
Over smothered flesh,
a whale shark
surfaces."
Though hypnotic, the words refuse to sit still, always pulsing with Umoto's oneness with the sea, so that we love Her as intimately and fiercely as he does, and he accomplishes this without preaching, but by allowing nature to speak for itself through a lens of free verse as smooth-textured as sea glass, as cunning as the ocean's secrets.
By the end of the collection, we are the waves, the reefs, the sand, the salt, and we care deeply about the ancient forces the connect all life.
We grieve with him for the irreplaceable treasures we have lost, and continue to lose, while he keeps us under the spell of his poetic voice that is both delicate and vast, ethereal and powerfully human, echoing the ebb and flow and moods of the waters we fear and cherish. The style as imagery pays homage to beaches and oceans so fragile in the hands of an individualist world.
In each poem there is room to meditate, with flashes of vivid observations that often float, miraculously, in the mind. In "Earth Dome" he writes:
"Because I want you
behind the waves.
When the universe
is full of ripples.
Behind parallel lines,
her furious salts.
Over smothered flesh,
a whale shark
surfaces."
Though hypnotic, the words refuse to sit still, always pulsing with Umoto's oneness with the sea, so that we love Her as intimately and fiercely as he does, and he accomplishes this without preaching, but by allowing nature to speak for itself through a lens of free verse as smooth-textured as sea glass, as cunning as the ocean's secrets.
By the end of the collection, we are the waves, the reefs, the sand, the salt, and we care deeply about the ancient forces the connect all life.
October 6, 2020
I heard something recently. About how water is (like) love. In that, it’s not attachment but connection. For someone who grew, then grew up in and around salty water, and whose favourite place to be is wholly immersed in the stuff, this felt like a profound insight or recognition. Perhaps, it’s the reason why when people fall, we say they fall deeply in love. It makes sense, then too, why we feel such grief and aloneness when we lose the deep connection to source or love or each other. The same juice that keeps us alive and humming, is the love that bubbles up from the depths, to ignite something special, when we connect to (love) one another and the life that supports us. Amari Utomo’s debut poetry collection, Tidal, is a reflection of grief, yes, for what we had and what we appear intent on vanishing, but it is more than mere doom and gloom. Instead, Utomo uses his intimate relationship with and knowledge of the sea to go deeper, to that place inside all of us where imaginings of a future that is different, are not only possible but probable if only we are prepared to stop, turn inward and reconnect with the love that sustains us. I felt this collection and can wholeheartedly recommend it.
September 14, 2020
When I think about peace, I close my eyes and imagine the blue surface of the water… I feel it is limitless and I see its indescribable beauty that could soothe and that could bring relaxation after our busy modern days.
I see how the seagulls fly and think about their freedom. I understand the beauty of this moment and thousands of others that will give joy, sadness or reassurance…
Reading this book reminds me of these feelings. When I sit down on the sand and feel the grains under my fingers… It reminds how close a human being should be to nature and how close it is.
I see how the seagulls fly and think about their freedom. I understand the beauty of this moment and thousands of others that will give joy, sadness or reassurance…
Reading this book reminds me of these feelings. When I sit down on the sand and feel the grains under my fingers… It reminds how close a human being should be to nature and how close it is.
September 22, 2020
Utomo's work flows, like the waves, from one thought to the next. His deliberate use of language and white space conjure the image of a rocking sea, taking us back and forth along its unsettled tides through a chorus of discontent sung by the author's words. He laments the pitiable state of our oceans, casting the very water itself as a character across his breadth of thought-provoking and impassioned pleas to stop pollution and climate change before it's too late! These are noble words in service of a noble cause, perhaps polarizing, yet executed with such finesse and grace that any reader could find joy in Utomo's words regardless of their personal feelings or affiliations. Ultimately, it is a marvelous collection of creative writings that clearly convey the care the creator carries for the subject, and most definitely worth a read for ocean lovers, poetry aficionados, and everyone in between.
September 23, 2020
A significant contribution to the emerging genre of eco-poetry. Like the ocean, Tidal is spacious in both form and depth. Stanzas float on the sea of the page, like ice flows calving in warmth and sound to reveal an author--a man of the sea--in mourning for the loss of our ocean habitat. With Utomo, the reader dives deep through beaching coral, relational loss, the alienation of technology.
The collection’s very best poems invite the reader to make intuitive connections between rich contemplative islands of insight, and the rocky shores of ocean politics. Tidal summons the reader into the often conflicting emotional complexities of our collective inaction before global warming, before our living, breathing ancestoral seas. This is one of the most emotionally engaging and accomplished debuts of the year.
The collection’s very best poems invite the reader to make intuitive connections between rich contemplative islands of insight, and the rocky shores of ocean politics. Tidal summons the reader into the often conflicting emotional complexities of our collective inaction before global warming, before our living, breathing ancestoral seas. This is one of the most emotionally engaging and accomplished debuts of the year.
December 16, 2020
Tidal is a collection of poems that devotes itself wholeheartedly to the sea. It grieves the
loss of the ocean’s independence, unsullied beauty, and innocence, at the hands of the ever
expanding human empire and resulting climate change. The free verse poems, interspersed
with beautiful coastline and reef photography, float across the page in wave-like ebbs and
flows, like Utomo’s emotions themselves, creating an altogether unique and passionate
lament of our earth’s oceans.
Tidal has a potential to be really special - the relevant eco-conscious subject, stunning
photographic reinforcement, and ample comparisons between natural and human life, all
really appealed to me. However, the true depths of Utomo’s intended meanings are often
lost under the complexity of his intricately constructed and densely packed metaphors. His
rich aquatic imagery, symbols, and use of white-space work well to draw out deep
comparisons between the sea in its current state and poignant experiences in everyday life.
They effortlessly eliciit feelings, such as love, sorrow, or trauma, in places. But, too often, it
feels like the significance of each thought is sacrificed too much to their presentation.
Overall, Utomo writes with a, largely tangible, raw sense of intimacy with his subject: the
vast sea. Yet I can’t help feeling that too often a simpler and more modest expression of
these feelings would have been just as, if not more, effective, carrying more widespread
weight.
I’ve seen a lot of really positive reviews for this book, and I can definitely see why.
Ultimately, however, I think it was just a little over complex. Tidal is an ambitious debut, and
admirable for that. Even though it wasn’t entirely for me, I would be interested to read any
future work by Utomo to see the progression of his style over time.
As with all poetry, your own interpretation is paramount, so I recommend reading it if you
are interested in this subject, or style of eco-lyricism. In any case, it was a very interesting
dip into the genre of environmental fiction, and important in expressing a universal need to
have a harsh look at our world’s ecologies during a time of climate crisis.
loss of the ocean’s independence, unsullied beauty, and innocence, at the hands of the ever
expanding human empire and resulting climate change. The free verse poems, interspersed
with beautiful coastline and reef photography, float across the page in wave-like ebbs and
flows, like Utomo’s emotions themselves, creating an altogether unique and passionate
lament of our earth’s oceans.
Tidal has a potential to be really special - the relevant eco-conscious subject, stunning
photographic reinforcement, and ample comparisons between natural and human life, all
really appealed to me. However, the true depths of Utomo’s intended meanings are often
lost under the complexity of his intricately constructed and densely packed metaphors. His
rich aquatic imagery, symbols, and use of white-space work well to draw out deep
comparisons between the sea in its current state and poignant experiences in everyday life.
They effortlessly eliciit feelings, such as love, sorrow, or trauma, in places. But, too often, it
feels like the significance of each thought is sacrificed too much to their presentation.
Overall, Utomo writes with a, largely tangible, raw sense of intimacy with his subject: the
vast sea. Yet I can’t help feeling that too often a simpler and more modest expression of
these feelings would have been just as, if not more, effective, carrying more widespread
weight.
I’ve seen a lot of really positive reviews for this book, and I can definitely see why.
Ultimately, however, I think it was just a little over complex. Tidal is an ambitious debut, and
admirable for that. Even though it wasn’t entirely for me, I would be interested to read any
future work by Utomo to see the progression of his style over time.
As with all poetry, your own interpretation is paramount, so I recommend reading it if you
are interested in this subject, or style of eco-lyricism. In any case, it was a very interesting
dip into the genre of environmental fiction, and important in expressing a universal need to
have a harsh look at our world’s ecologies during a time of climate crisis.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews