'Turbulence' by Thuy On

I’m trying to read more Poetry because it’s good for me.

I always encourage emerging writers to read outside their form/readership/genre to stretch their brains a bit, but I hadn’t been doing that myself lately and I needed to ... I’m in awe of poets. Their tight lines and pace, perfectly selected words & phrases just floor me.

One poetry collection I picked up recently was 'Turbulence' by Thuy On. It's all about sex, relationships, humour, heartbreak, rebirth, rejection and longing.

CAMEO 

In this game of chance  

the dynamic chaos 

that whirlwinded us both 

whimpers and waits 

for pattern and tidy 

the idea was to be 

interwoven into narrative 

separate skeins 

gently plait bound 

singular becoming plural 

but your cameo sightings 

make us a poor play 

half-formed ghostings 

creaking on floorboards.

I found a lot of humour in this collection too - dark humour, for sure, but an ability to look at life and raise your eyebrow to it all. - like the final stanza in Perspective:

just a slice of the drama 

on reveal 

like a fingernail clipping of the moon.

I think this is a wonderful modern and deeply personal collection out of Australia and UWA Publishing, and I think there’s something for everyone here

5/5