Reading “Praise Song for Oceania” by Craig Santos Perez was both an emotional rollercoaster and a truly enlightening experience. For context, the poem overall is a commentary about the Oceania region, the people therein, and the planet as a whole. 

First, the poem is separated into seemingly unrelated stanzas all united by a common opening of “praise” or “please”, bouncing between the two essentially at random. Consequently, the speaker of the poem appeared to change throughout it, as the subject matter was conveyed in varying levels of linguistic approach, from using words like “lustful tourism” to words like “my grandpa” (3-4). That is to say, each stanza was almost like a poem in and of itself, making the overall work very difficult to analyze cohesively and holistically. Ultimately, I think these decisions were made to demonstrate the diverse perspectives of Pacific Islanders and to garner support for the broader climate justice movement, but there are a multitude of other possible interpretations. 

The poem opens with an excerpt from Linda Hogan’s “The Turtle Watchers”, which in all honesty felt really out of place to me. I originally thought of it as nothing more than an epigraph, perhaps a nod to an admired artist or as a subtle reference to the ocean subject matter (“turtle”). However, as I read through the poem, my understanding grew. The quote talks about “where beings meet…rounding the human corners”, which feels like a deliberate tone-setting tool to prepare the reader for the unity and humanity imagery of the poem exemplified in phrases like “our trawling boats” and “our territorial hands” (1-3). Overall, the epigraph definitely has more meaning than I thought at first glance.

Another aspect of the piece which I found particularly challenging was the visual structure. Each stanza is read in descending right-diagonal lines with occasional shifts left and are separated by the “~” symbol with large spaces between. Upon first read, I knew that this was a deliberate choice, since conventional structure would be a left centered column with single spaces. However, the difficulty arose with trying to interpret it. Because the general theme of the poem is water/ocean, I thought that the descending pattern could imitate the flow of water, but the separation could actually indicate an ocean between stanza islands. It is also entirely possible  that the author was trying to imitate the jagged structure of coral, which is mentioned directly on Page 2. Regardless, the multitude of potential reasons for that structure make the poem tough to break down, since it very clearly holds a great deal of significance to the overall meaning.

One particular part of the poem which was troublesome to dissect was the last stanza on Page 5, which references the ocean’s contributions to indigenous languages and practices. The end of the stanza consists of a series of words (“tasi : kai … wonsolwara”) in another language. Upon further research, I learned that the author, Craig Santos Perez, is from Guam, whose main language aside from English is Chamorro. I tried finding a translator for this language, but I could not find any reputable ones–this did not even account for the possibility that the language is not Chamorro, although it seems the most likely since the author has a personal connection to the associated culture. I was never able to fully grasp the meaning of the words, but after reading the poem a few times, it became clear that they are probably a tribute to a tradition or practice, since much of the rest of the poem functions as such. 

The last aspect of the work which I struggled to grasp was what the poem was ultimately trying to convey. This, in some regard, refers back to the sporadic usage of “please” and “praise”, but it is more specific to the overall function. The poem includes language like “source of every breath”, which imbues a sense of reverence and respect for all that the ocean does for humanity (1). But just a few stanzas later the author completely changes tone when using such phrases as “our nuclear arms” and “our invasive drilling” (3), which diverges from praise and falls more into self-blame and sorrow. As a result, I had a hard time understanding the author’s purpose in writing this piece, even after reading this poem repeatedly. I questioned whether the author was trying to write an ode to a powerful entity or a criticism of humanity’s blatant disregard for the health of the plant. Ultimately, I believe that the function of the piece is a little bit of both, but with such a strongly worded piece I certainly expected the purpose to be more direct/pointed. This is obviously to no fault of the author, and was more of my preconceived notion about the nature of activism poetry. 

In all, I absolutely loved reading this poem. It was humbling seeing all of the facets of marine affairs laid out all in front of me, and while the way they fit together remains a bit unclear to me, I still think that the author does an amazing job of conveying their passion for climate justice. 

Praise Song for Oceania by Craig Santos Perez