Strange Beach is an evocative debut collection from poet and choreographer Oluwaseun Olayiwola that uses the title setting to illustrate his world through language and poetic imagery. Olayiwola showcases his refined writing craft, through these beautiful poems and has set the bar high for any further collections to come.
Oluwaseun (Seun) Olayiwola is a Nigerian-American poet, critic, choreographer and performer based in London, who has been published by The Guardian, The Poetry Review, PN Review, Oxford Poetry, The Telegraph, The Times Literary Supplement and elsewhere. It’s not surprising that he’s a critic and obvious reader. This is a book that draws upon other writing, speaking to previous work – Claudia Rankine’s ‘Citizen’ is included – and has an intellectual, queer consciousness and quality to it that will see it acclaimed and well-regarded, especially for a debut.
The poem which lends its title to the collection, ‘Strange Beach’ has a haunting quality and a constant movement to it – ‘the white willow’s leaves incandescent…their chlorophyll techniques of low-wind forgetting.’ Similarly, ‘Beacon’ leaves us with depictions of the stark loneliness of life in a lighthouse – ‘blank moons, inside us, waxed, astonished.’ The collection’s unsettling imagery leaves an astonishing imprinted mark.
Many of Olayiwola’s other poems consider the non-binary and fluidity that comes with life. In ‘Simulacrum’ we are told, ‘the sky is a masculinity. He starts the car. Likes to be called daddy.’, its imagery forcing us to think about the fluidity in nature, and the writer uses it admirably. In fact, there are few poems amongst this lot, which will not leave you thinking the same as when you stepped in the door.
Strange Beach is out now, published by Fitzcarraldo Editions on 30th January 2025
