Ocean Mother weaves together riveting poems from strands of Arielle Taitano Lowe's memories growing up as a Chamoru girl in Guåhan (Guam), layered with realizations she made across the ocean and upon her return home. In this brave act of sharing, Lowe unravels generations of trauma and begins to heal herself, her family, and her home.
Praise for Ocean Mother
“With poems like shards of sea glass, Lowe is searching for a home, a mother, a song. A debut full of sea, sky, and promise.”
— Julian Aguon, author of No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies
“In this haunting debut collection, Arielle Taitano Lowe sifts through a ‘graveyard of Indigenous traditions’ to reclaim poem by poem CHamoru culture, and word by word its own language. The author is ‘soul fishing.’ Readers will be grateful to be invited along.”
—Kimberly Blaeser, Wisconsin Poet Laureate 2015-2016 and author of Ancient Light
Born of Lowe’s deep guinaiya for her island, her people, and her culture, this book marks the emergence of an important famalao’an voice in CHamoru poetry and in Pacific poetry, one firmly committed to truth-telling and the healing power of our ocean.
—Brandy Nālani McDougall, Hawaiʻi Poet Laureate 2023-2025 and author of ʻĀina Hānau, Birth Lands
"Arielle Taitano Lowe’s dazzling debut collection of poetry Ocean Mother, is like the ocean mother herself, expansive, intimate and precious. With precision, nuance and skillful magnificence, Ocean Mother is a CHamoru map to a gorgeous CHamoru culture bursting with living. A profound accomplishment and balm for our present moment."
— Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Author of Theory of Water
