Messages from Salt Water

Sabrina Ito's poetry chapbook, Messages from Salt Water explores how love, betrayal, discovery and acceptance drive and define our relationships with others, as well as with ourselves. Autobiographical in nature, these poems chronicle various stages of Ito's personal life - from her childhood experiences in Japan, to her adult years in Canada and the USA. Displacement, racial identity and unresolved relationships feature as predominant themes, while water symbolism unifies the collection. Simple, yet evocative, Ito's poetic style invokes the natural Japanese landscapes where many of her poems take place. An honest and sincere portrayal of how life-changing moments are often fleeting and indefinable, Messages from Salt Water is narrative poetry at its best - accessible stories told through lyrical language, that readers will want to revisit and re-experience again, and again.