Small Bodies of Water

November 21, 2022
In this insightful if scattered essay collection, poet Powles (Magnolia: Poems) reflects on her identity as a white and Malaysian Chinese New Zealander. Powles spent her childhood in Wellington, New Zealand; New York; and Shanghai, and often visited Malaysia, and her fragmented life serves as inspiration for these 16 essays that bounce between topics and often invoke the natural world. Viewing the waterfalls of Mount Kinabalu near her grandparents’ home in Malaysia brings up memories of how the “inner geography” of their house was marked by “the blue coastline.” In her parents’ garden by the sea, she looks at the kowhai tree, the unofficial national flower of New Zealand, and recalls trying to spot similar trees in London. Cloud forests and pebbled shorelines are evoked in gorgeous imagery, but some entries tend to ramble, as with “The Safe Zone” which begins with a discussion of earthquakes before veering into Powles’s obsession with orcas, and then turning into a brief recollection of the author receiving counseling for post-traumatic stress disorder after two men broke into her apartment. Not every piece is a winner, but nature-minded fans of the personal essay will find plenty to like. Agent: Kirsty McLachlan, Morgan Green Creatives.