By Louise Sapphira
Oscar explores his love of nature and provides a sense of understanding of resilience through a narrative around the survival of the Dune Thistle.
Resilience and overcoming adversity are explored in Oscar O’Neill Pugh’s debut poetry collection, Musings of a Dune Thistle. Oscar draws on his love of writing, sailing, nature, and the native plant, the Dune Thistle, to craft a narrative centred on the idea of belonging juxtaposed against the concept of being misunderstood, yet developing the heart to thrive even when taken from one’s roots. As the audience reads each of Oscar’s poems in this collection, they sense we are in this together, shaping each other’s narratives. But ultimately, it is the individual’s resilience that pulls us through. I met with Oscar to discuss the inspiration behind his debut poetry collection and his writing journey.
First, Oscar speaks about the Dune Thistle, ‘a very unique native plant,’ whose scientific name is Actites Megalocarpus, the only Actites in the world. He explains, ‘Because it quite looks like a False Sow Thistle, at times it can be misidentified and either sprayed with poison or alternatively ripped out of the ground.’ Whereas, the Dune Thistle has the role to help stablise sand dunes, and is protected as a native plant. Oscar says, ‘There is a beauty to it, despite all of the things it has to weather…[such as] the conditions of the coast.’ Regardless, ‘even when it flowers, it can be taken from the earth.’
The inspiration behind the collection of poetry involved Oscar workshopping ideas within the pressure of finalising an idea, and this pressure ultimately led to the light bulb moment, that is Musings of a Dune Thistle. He adds, ‘When I started writing back in high school teenage years, I’d always refer to myself as a thistle, more of it being an actual weed.’ Oscar adds, ‘And with my love of the coast, and then wanting to also tell a story about recovery and moving forward no matter what, it just made absolute sense to me.’
We discussed the chapter Uprooted, which comes directly after Florets, that explores when the Dune Thistle blooms. Oscar says, ‘When I was writing Uprooted, I really wanted to focus on when we’re finally brave enough, or when we’ve finally achieved who we want to be, it’s rejected by other people.’ Therefore, when the Dune Thistle ‘is misidentified and taken from the ground, the stories in there are struggling not only to assert who we are in the world, but also with our own identity.’ This included exploring the European settlement of Australia. ‘As someone who was born here, but not from here, I did want to address that as well.’
Woven with the detail of the written words is the exploration of structure in the narrative of storytelling. Oscar speaks about being inspired by classic poets such as Baudelaire, whereas now he reads more contemporary poetry. As a result, ‘[I am] inspired by using the space on a page to tell its own story.’ He adds, ‘Before writing Musings of a Dune Thistle, I actually hadn’t written in about two to three years, and coming back now, I wanted to reflect that absence, and how I’ve grown since then…and sort of embrace that new style.’ Within the element of structure, themes are explored in Musings of a Dune Thistle. A significant amount of the narrative in the poetry collection is new work written specifically for this book. Oscar says, ‘Because of the different sections that those poems are in, I really wanted to have those narrative themes linking them, so you can view them somewhat by themselves, but they work best in tandem with each other.’
Oscar shared his journey as a writer in the context of the poem Writing Without Pain. ‘[This poem] was really a reflection of myself as a writer, because my old work was primarily focused on the harshest emotions…They typically were from a darker side of love.’ He adds, ‘Whereas, now I’ve got some poems in there that are a lot more sincere, and beautiful in the way that they want to express how fully they give themselves to someone, and that sweetness of love that they feel as well.’
The consideration of the audience is part of a writer’s journey, and for Oscar, there are two potential readership groups for Musings of a Dune Thistle. He says, ‘The first category is survivors. Whether or not they’re still on their own journeys of healing or maybe they have made that recovery, I wanted solidarity between the two.’ He reflects and speaks about those who are still experiencing turmoil, and for Oscar, he hopes this book will allow the readership to see that other people are having similar experiences and feel they will survive the heartache. The second readership, ‘[are] people who haven’t experienced that same pain, and that same tragedy…[but] perhaps they’ve recognised it in other people, and they can embrace them and also make them feel seen.’
But where does poetry sit today in the value of storytelling? It is about ‘capturing emotions, and I think that is going to be as relevant now in the future as it always has been.’ Oscar adds, ‘There’s something about crafting those stories which sometimes even if you can’t understand exactly what the person is saying, you feel it.’ A reader can connect with the words on a page and what someone is trying to express. ‘Whether it be something reflecting on heartbreak, or love, or a political critique, or something that’s just funny…There is something so important about sharing that with other people.’
Oscar’s happy place is nature, something that he holds close to his heart, in particular, when he is around birds. ‘I love going out and watching them, because they are such fascinating creatures.’ Oscar grew up in a coastal suburb and expresses his love of the ocean, often spending much of his time in this space. ‘Just being out there in nature inspires me…the touch of the wind on your face, the soft sun, or even in those harsher conditions.’ In the poem The Australasian Gannet, Oscar describes sailing one day when an Australasian Gannet came up from behind the boat, flew along the side of the vessel, and finally crossed over. He says, ‘It was just this brilliant flash of white, and then it’s orange stripe over its head. That was just instantly, pen and paper,’ and this story was the inspiration behind this poem. He adds, ‘There’s just something so amazing about being out there.’
Here I share the second part of the poem:
A soft lightning bolt
flashed with
a pastel orange,
denoting the head
and all the wisdom
of the wind, waves
and water from which
its daily purpose is determined.
After returning to writing, Oscar does not always want to write with this intense emotion of pain, but rather, when he sits down to write, something unexpected falls on the pages. He says, ‘Now the floodgates are opened, and I’ll be writing poetry for a very long time.’ When we speak about his next projects, Oscar says, ‘I’d like to move on to something different now. I do love telling narratives throughout my books.’ One project is based on how governments, including organisations treat the environment and have such a devastating impact on nature, which infuriates Oscar. But when it comes down to it, this is one idea among many. He understands the journey of a writer and says, ‘I’ll maybe try to do something completely left field. Just write something like a horror or sci-fi collection. We will see what happens.’ Regardless of Oscar’s next intentions, his debut poetry collection, Musings of a Dune Thistle, allows his audience to quietly take in the tranquillity of his beautifully written words and reflect on what matters to us.
Read a review of Musings of a Dune Thistle.
