A Reading by
Oscar Peñaranda
and
Barbara Jane Reyes
Thursday, November 4, 2004, at 4:00 pm
Richard Oakes Multicultural Center
Cesar Chavez Student Center, San Francisco State University
Oscar Peñaranda was born in the seacoast town of Barugo on the island of Leyte, Philippines. He earned his B.A. (in Literature) and M.A. (Creative Writing) at San Francisco State University where he became part of the struggle to establish Ethnic Studies in the schools. He taught at SF State for 12 years, Everett Middle School for 10 years, and is currently teaching at James Logan High School in Union City. He is the author of a collection of poetry, Full Deck (Jokers Playing), and a collection of short stories, Seasons by the Bay.
Barbara Jane Reyes was born in Manila and raised in the SF Bay Area. She received her undergraduate education at UC Berkeley, and is currently a MFA candidate at SF State University. She is the author of Gravities of Center, and currently at work on her second book (a book-length poem) entitled Poeta en San Francisco.
This event, co-sponsored by the Department of Asian American Studies and the Richard Oakes Multicultural Center, is free and open to the public.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Eileen Tabios’s Reproductions of the Empty Flagpole is an endless swoon. Reading it puts you in a state of suspension — to misquote her, “an emotion you will welcome as a discovery.” Like a flag torn from its moorings, borne aloft, knowing no nation, just the wind, her poetry is the essence of sensual drift and travel.
But I’m wrong, of course: the central image, after all, is the empty flagpole, or rather, what remains: traces of languorous Manhattan afternoons, the lingering of strangers in cafes and deserts, the cinders of urban longing and belonging.
But these conjured scenarios of wisp and wander conceal a steely interior: “For she has trained men to kneel and she is replete.” It’s romantic in the extravagant sense of the word, and the reader’s obligation is to surrender. Let go, she whispers in your ear. Let go.
[Actual conversation with airport baggage inspector the other day:
Inspector: [looking at cover] What is that?
Me: I think it’s a close-up of a plant.
[Pause.]
Inspector: [looking puzzled] And what does the title mean?
Me: [thinking fast] Not sure. [Pause, then adding lamely:] It’s a book of poetry.
Inspector: Ah, that’s why.]
Popularity: 1% [?]
You will inherit a large sum of money.
You will be surrounded by many friends.
Your persistence will be rewarded.
You will have great successes in life this year.
You will give up and ask for a fork.
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Tuck under
thumb
and hold firmly.
Add second chopstick
hold it as you hold
a pencil.
Hold first
chopstick
in original
position.
Move the
second one
up
and
down.
Now you can pick up anything.
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(what remains)
A scrape.
A breath.
Popularity: 1% [?]
