Exploring the complex dynamics of parenthood, childhood, and labor, this collection delves into the harsh realities faced by individuals under global capitalism and rising nativism. Cynthia Dewi Oka's poetry reflects on the struggles and identities shaped by these societal forces, offering a poignant commentary on what it means to exist as marginalized beings in a challenging world.
How do we transform the wreckage of our identities? Cynthia Dewi Oka’s evocative collection answers this question by brimming with what we salvage from our most deep-seated battles. Reflecting the many dimensions of the poet’s life, Salvage manifests an intermixture of aesthetic forms that encompasses multiple social, political, and cultural contexts—leading readers to Bali, Indonesia, to the Pacific Northwest, and to South Jersey and Philadelphia. Throughout it insistently interrogates what it means to reach for our humanity through the guises of nation, race, and gender. Oka’s language transports us through the many bodies of fluid poetics that inhabit our migrating senses and permeate across generations into a personal diaspora. Salvage invites us to be without borders.