Poem-a-Day - "ars pasifika" by Craig Santos Perez

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May 22, 2020  

ars pasifika


Craig Santos Perez

 

when the tide

 

of silence

 

rises

 

say “ocean”

 

then with the paddle

 

of your tongue

 

rearrange

 

the letters to form

 

“canoe”

Copyright © 2020 by Craig Santos Perez. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on May 22, 2020 by the Academy of American Poets.

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“This poem emerged from the recognition that the words ‘ocean’ and ‘canoe’ are composed of the same letters. As a Pacific Islander poet, this resonated as a lesson in poetics, or an ‘ars pasifika.’”
Craig Santos Perez

Craig Santos Perez is the author of five books of poetry, most recently Habitat Threshold (Omnidawn Publishing, 2020). He is an associate professor in the English Department at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Perez is an indigenous Chamoru writer from the Pacific Island of Guåhan (Guam). 

Habitat Threshold
(Omnidawn Publishing, 2020)


 
“Maroon Canoe” by Oni Buchanan
“Carrying Our Words” by Ofelia Zepeda
read more

Thanks to Monica Youn, author of Blackacre (Graywolf Press, 2016), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month’s weekdays. Read an extended Q&A about Youn’s curatorial approach and find out more about our guest editors for the year.
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