Managed to unearth some real gems: among others, the New Directions hardcover edition of Jose Garcia Villa's Volume Two (1949), and Villa's A Doveglion Book of Philippine Poetry (1962). (She's letting me bring them to SF.)
The latter book has the usual, much-anthologized suspects -- Virgie Moreno's chilling "Order for Masks," Nick Joaquin's weary "The Innocence of Solomon," Alejandrino Hufana's "Poro Point" -- and a few surprises (to me): an experimentation in form by Carlos Bulosan, artist David Medalla's "Envoi" (reminiscent of Yoko Ono's Instruction Paintings), and Romeo Solina's oddly affecting meditation on the "open and closed parentheses" of the rosary ("dead seedbead"), entitled "GOD, theo, dios" (excerpted here, coming towards the conclusion):
GOD, theo, dios turn
from words and sound and words and sound
to holy unstillable silence within-without
Archly, Villa provides his introduction:
Being, simply, an selection by the
editor of what he regards as
the best poems in English
written by Filipinos
Not to say that there isn't one unifying theme: there are indeed Villa-esque touches here and there, from Jose Lansang, Jr.'s "Sonnet" (where [chuckle] he rhymes "Phoenix," "genetrix," "unmix," and "matrix"), and the ending of Gemino Abad's fine "To Caliban:"
Rise, Caliban, and rage,
And pure, burst, Eyes.
Add a couple of commas and stir! =)
(When she was a teenager, my starstruck mom met Villa a few times, when he was hanging out at my uncle Armando Manalo's house -- the first time, she said, he brought wife and kids; the second time, when she had dinner with him, he had "a very good looking boy toy in tow." Apparently my mother has a photo of herself with Villa, who was sporting a lock of hair dyed green -- quite scandalous in those days! I asked her if Villa had any words of wisdom, but all she could remember was his handsome young partner.)
Posted by the wily filipino at June 7, 2003 03:05 AM