Carrying the Ocean by Shymala Dason

“In her gorgeous and absolutely gripping collection, Shymala Dason offers us the world in water, immersing us without drowning. The poems are dripping with imagery and wonder, written in elegant verse that ask us to slow down and notice. She brings the reader on a journey rich with slow laughter and gentle tears, moving us back and forth across the ocean in waves; some gentle, some epic, then laying us back on the shore to stare at the changing sky and remember.”

–Suzi Q. Smith, author of Poems for the End of the World.

“As someone who never felt like he belonged somewhere, this book reminds me that perhaps this exact feeling is what stitches us all together. Shymala takes us through the footpaths and rivulets of her memories and resurrects a time where she ‘dreamt foolishly.’ As I witnessed these poems emerge in South Asian diaspora open mics during the pandemic, and now as I read the finished poems, I hope—for all our sake—that there is no other way to dream.”

–Aditya Surendran, author of CheeseDosa: The Legend-Dairy Tales of a Suburban Dork.

“Shymala Dason crafts poems that interweave personal and cultural memories with deep reflections on loss, belonging, and identity, grounded in her experience as an immigrant. From the reviving monsoon rains of Malaysia to the storms of the Atlantic and Pacific, Dason takes readers on a profound journey that spans continents, cultures, and time. The saying is, ‘You can’t go home again.’ Dason both embraces that idea, and puts a unique spin on it. The final lines of the closing poem are, ‘I carry ocean.’ I admire those three words, so perfectly placed, so multilayered. This gorgeous book is for all who travel, who dream, and who seek home along the way.”

–Malaika King Albrecht, author of The Stumble Fields.