I first saw these poems in manuscript when they were sent in to Radio National’s Poetica program from the Cocos (Keeling) Islands and I knew they were important. It was not only their first-hand experience with refugees – though that was a big factor, as the plight of refugees is a defining feature of our times, and future generations will look back at our treatment of them and judge us as a people by it. It was also the geographical location of the poems and their sensitivity to an oceanic environment. Reneé Pettitt-Schipp has had an interest in the artistic and poetic movement known as Tidalectics, an ocean-based movement that seeks a more decentralised, environmental and fluid approach to world poetry and politics. The structure of the book follows a personal journey from Christmas Island, back to the Australian mainland to deal with the decline and death of her father, then to the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and finally back to the suburbs of Perth. There is a restrained power in her lyrics and her political poems manage to be both trenchant and caring. In The Sky Runs Right Through Us, the sea unmakes our tight self-definitions and the margins become central. Reneé Pettitt-Schipp unsettles at the same time as she delights. MIKE LADD, RADIO NATIONAL