The Wallace Line by Jennifer MacKenzie

Immerse yourself in the beauty of tropical forests, the scent of spices, ‘kingfishers of a violet & orange hue’ , ‘blue, pink, lemon robes in the marketplace’, the melody of the gamelan, the bougainvillea and butterflies. This is Indonesia, land of clove and the black gold nutmeg, prize of the spice trade. But also the land of massacres, palm oil plantations and oceans of plastic; beauty and horror together. Jennifer Mackenzie’s poem The Wallace Line encompasses it all, the lush exoticness, and the despoiled history.

This slim volume with its gorgeous decorative cover is named for the Wallace Line, an imaginary divider that marks the difference between species found in Australia and South East Asia. West of the Wallace Line, according to the guide, are found the tiger, the rhinoceros, the wild bull, the peacock and jungle fowl. Australasian fauna are found to the east.

Most powerful is Mackenzie’s poem ‘When Du Fu visited he was unfazed’, the Chinese poet recognising the screaming children of Syria on the television screen and remembering the valleys full of abandoned corpses of the An Lushan Rebellion many years ago. The violence of history repeats itself, even as the sunset glows spectacularly orange. The eyes of the two poets, past and present, hold tears.

Each reader will find something that resonates for them. There is so much to explore in Jennifer Mackenzie’s deceptively slim book; it is something to pick up, read a little and reflect on, a treasure of history, mythology and art, to savour and enjoy.

Themes: Indonesia, Spice trade, Wallace Line, Environment, Tropics, Poetry.

Helen Eddy