Poetry
Dragonfly by Vince Gotera. Vince is a professor at Northern Iowa. He
is also the editor of another book of poetry called Radical Visions: Poetry
by Vietnam Veterans.
Order
Dragonfly now!
Order Radical Visions now!
El Grupo McDonald's by Nick Carbo. Tia Chucha Press, Chicago, 1995.
I don't really enjoy reading poetry that much because I usually don't understand
them ... but I loved the poems contained in this collection ... as they tell stories of real
life, not just the abstract. And they're funny too, in a wry kind of way. E. San Juan
says that Nick Carbo is one of the finest writers of his generation of Filipino
Americans and it shows.
Ordering information.
In the Garden of Three Islands, Poems by Maria Luisa A. Carino. Asphodel Press
Moyer Bell, 1995. This is a slim volume of poems by University of Illinois-Chicago instructor
Dr. Ma. Luisa A. Carino, a Fullbright scholar and several times Palanca awardee. Again,
just like Carbo's poems, Carino's are also enjoyable to read - they are full of history,
legend, politics and everyday life written in very lyrical style. I haven't finished it yet
though ... I'm taking it slowly.
Ordering Information.
Returning a Borrowed Tongue edited by Nick Carbo. Coffee House Press, Minneapolis, 1996.
This is a major collection of contemporary poetry from diverse authors ranging from
"oldtimers" such as Gemino Abad, N.V.M. Gonzalez, D.I. Ilio to emerging poets such as
Eric Gamalinda, Danton Remoto and R. Zamora-Linmark. It is quite an eclectic
collection. Many are sublime,
a lot are pedestrian, but never has been there a book like this bringing poets from the Philippines as well as America.
Order this book because it is
a good, albeit uneven read, but also because of its historical significance.
A Native Clearing, Filipino Poetry and Verse from English since the 50s to
the Present. Edited by Gemino H. Abad. University of the Philippines Press. 1993.
This collection covers Filipino poetry wrought from English since the 50s to the
present. (A companion collection, Man of Earth (1989) also edited by Abad
and Edna Zapanta-Manlapaz, encompassed the period from 1905 - 1950s.) This is
virtually a who's who of Philippine literature - any one who matters and who is
writing in English FROM the Philippines is included. Very cerebral.
Ordering information.
In Another Light: Poems and Essays by Gemino Abad. University of Hawaii
Press, 1976. Ordering Information.
Comrade is as Precious as a Rice Seedling by Mila D. Aguilar. Bookpeople, 1987.
I don't have a copy of this book, BUT I've seen a tattered copy being passed around
among hardcore feminists
and political types when I was in graduate school at the University of Illinois. I
believe the poems were (1) either written when Mila D. Aguilar
(who is a schoolmate at UP High and is also on the net!) was in the stockades during
martial law, imprisoned by Marcos or (2) it was because of these poems that she was
imprisoned. I am not sure. But I remember the cover was red and had barbed wire on it.
My political-type friends said the poems are very powerful. I hope to get a copy of
this through Amazon and I would gladly review it for later. Ordering
information.
