Crying Gorgeously; 4:37am
$28.00
crying gorgeously: 4:37am is, at once, both an unravelling and the composition of personhood.
This collection is a series of experiments, a body erupting in defiance and resistance to the language being rained upon it. Wrapped in pervasive loneliness and othering, J. explores the effects of dysfunctional family dynamics, colonialism and patriarchal structures on mental health and identity.
“… these poems are akin to a conceptual hadron collider, walloping images and languages together with such striking intensity and experimental energy … In Marahuyo’s subliminations of identity, sexuality, ethnicity, and hybridity, an intimate autobiographical portrait emerges … crying gorgeously is an ode to transcendental transmutation.” – Luke Carman
Within its introspective dreamscape, we wander through expressions of mood swings, rememberings and therapy. We watch the brittle bones of childhood crash into looking for love in the wrong places.
Nightmares streak into gorgeous tears, each poem is a step towards self-acceptance, an attempt to reconnect with heritage, an attempt to clinging to a homeland that’s slipping away. Uncovering the source of pain is also the catalyst for healing. Relationships with the women surrounding and puncturing the poet’s surface tension with their warmth. Tagalog is scattered. The ramifications of colonialism are encased within language as the search for belonging leads back to the self.
J. Marahuyo is a neurodivergent Filipino- Australian award winning poet. She was shortlisted for the Newcastle Poetry Prize 2024, won the Writing NS W - V aruna Fellowship 2024 and won the Living Stories Prize 2024. Crying Gorgeously: 4:37am is her debut collection.
“Fresh, original & dazzling - Marahuyo’s breathless words shimmer off the page and breathe new life into Australian poetry.” - ali whitelock
Publication date: May 1st 2025.
