FEATURED ON MARSH HAWK PRESS' "CHAPTER ONE" SERIES

You are invited to read my' essay on titling poems, the latest installment in Marsh Hawk Press' "Chapter One" series! 

The essay deliberately references poet-activists Kerima Lorena Tariman (pictured above) and Ericson Acosta because, yes, their murders should never be forgotten. Essay available HERE. Here's an excerpt:

"... much of my job as a poet takes place before I begin any poem. My job is to educate myself on as many topics as possible, engage in a wide variety of experiences, hone my skills at observation, and meditate over the significance of a variety of events—not for writing a poem but by being better in the world through a basking in experience. All this knowledge and experience are filed in my brain as raw material for when I finally write the poem, e.g., the information on Negros Occidental which had marinated in my mind for three decades. In the actual creation of the poem, I trust in having filed enough mental material for the poem to access as it chooses.

Obviously, the more content there is in that mental file, the better the poem is served. I recently noted in an interview that as a poet I believe in education for education’s sake for avoiding cliches and sourcing new metaphors. As an example, for no particular reason besides education, I learned about black holes, specifically that if one is able to witness the phenomenon, one would see objects falling into those holes in falls that seem never to end. The idea of a permanent falling resonated with me and came to be included in several poems."

~

The article also provides a link to my next book BECAUSE I LOVE YOU, I BECOME WAR. It's not scheduled for release until May, but SPD now has it available for purchase HERE.

HOW TO TEACH ME

I recently sent books to a professor of Asian American Literature who will be teaching some of my poetry. Along with the books, I dashed off the following (very informal, not scholarly) note ... which I then thought to share here as it may be helpful to others. The note is slightly contextualized for AsianAm Lit but I believe can be relevant to other disciplines:

[DEAR TEACHER],

            Thanks for your receptivity to my work. I thought I’d share some notes since I’m sharing several books that may (or may not) be helpful for purpose of “Asian American lit”:

--you have Reproductions of the Empty Flagpole and it shows how I use abstract language to elide the use of English as narrative communication, as a dis at how English was used to colonize the Philippines. My transcolonial take on language is reflected on how I deliberately radicalize the slipperiness of language (for which Poetry’s language is so perfect)—such is seen as well on MURDER DEATH RESURRECTION (which maximizes the role of randomness in creating new poems).

--2019 book Witness in the Convex Mirror reflects a nod to John Ashbery for being called (in some circles) the most important English-language poet of the 20^th century) but my attempt (particularly in 2^nd half of book) also “browns" his concerns.

--the hay(na)ku books add a new poetry form to English poetry, which was both an aesthetic and political goal.

--I like using methods associated with the visual arts because I’m trying to address poetry in non-traditional ways. SUN STIGMATA reflects my “sculpting” out new poems from the text blocks that had appeared in Reproductions of the Empty Flagpole. This also led to my “Selected Visual Poetry,” THE GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL (GAN); the title of course also addresses the notion of not just GAN but “AMERICAN.” GAN’s first entry may be of most interest as it reflects how I translate diaspora into “cloudygenous,” a word I invited for a Univ. of Wesleyan anthology of new words related to the anthropocene…

--The Secret Lives of Punctuations brings out to light those items (punctuations) often ignored—a metaphor for … many things. Note the reference to “Vol. 1” though there aren’t (yet) additional volumes to indicate the plentitude of life in the margins. Relatedly, Menage a Trois with the 21^st Century seeks to resuscitate a modern life for Gabriela Silang who had sacrificed her life to be the first female general of anti-Spanish colonial forces in the Philippines.

--ECSTATIC MUTATIONS: Experiments in the Poetry Laboratory is an old and out-of-print book published in the Philippines but is useful for relaying my early interests in experimenting with poetry. TANKA, Vol. 1 (relatively new work) indeed shows me revamping the traditional “tanka” form.

--it’s tedious being a martyr so I TAKE THEE, ENGLISH, FOR MY BELOVED is also a  rapprochement with my reality of being a diasporic Filipina writing in English. It was a lot of fun to marry English and that performance also involved  other poets, including a hairy poet, wearing that over-the-top Princess Di type of bridal gown (once, it was the rage J ) featured on the book cover.

--I TAKE THEE, ENGLISH,… includes reports on performances involving the community. Such acts, along with the hay(na)ku, MURDER DEATH RESURRECTION, and others will reflect—ultimately—my encouragement of “Kapwa” (a Filipino indigenous trait of recognizing one's self in others and vice versa).

--I love doing “Selected Poems” projects on poetry forms as such allows me to show—and interested readers to glean—how I expanded a poetry form’s possibilities: hence, Invent(st)ory on the list poem; Great American Novel on visual poetry, A THORN ROSARY on the prose poem, and even ONE TWO THREE where I did a Selection on the hay(na)ku despite inventing it (it led to the “haybun,” among other things). 147 MILLION ORPHANS is the first and so far only single-author collection of haybun. As a Filipino-PilipinZ writer, I consider it important to be discernible in not just inheriting but expanding the English language.

--The Blind Chatelaine’s Keys and AGAINST MISANTHROPY may be useful for offering poetics essays. Note that quite often I use not my own authored essays but others’ to reflect Kapwa and because I believe it’s my job to create poems but not necessarily tell others how to read/interpret them. These two also reflect my performance-disputations of auto/biography—the difficulty of capturing reality (e.g. through multiple interpretations of my work). This element is noted in the subtitle of THE LIGHT SANG AS IT LEFT YOUR EYES which incorporates the word “our” before the word “autobiography.”

More info on my poetry books are at my website, specifically https://eileenrtabios.com/poetry/

All best,

Eileen

Enclosures:

THE THORN ROSARY: Selected Prose Poems & New (1998-2010)

INVENT(ST)ORY: Selected Catalog Poems & New 1996-2015

The In(ter)vention of the Hay(na)ku: Selected Tercets 1996-2019

The Great American Novel: Selected Visual Poetry (2001-2009)

Menage a Trois with the 21^st Century

The Secret Lives of Punctuations, Vol. 1

MURDER DEATH RESURRECTION: A Poetry Generator

Love in a Time of Belligerence

Witness in the Convex Mirror

Sun Stigmata (Sculpture Poems)

147 Million Orphans

AGAINST MISANTHROPY: A Life in Poetry (2015-1995)

THE BLIND CHATELAINE’S KEYS

THE LIGHT SANG AS IT LEFT YOUR EYES: Our Autobiography

I TAKE THEE, ENGLISH, FOR MY BELOVED

ONE TWO THREE: Selected Hay(na)ku (English/Spanish bilingual edition)

ECSTATIC MUTATIONS: Experiments in the Poetry Library

TANKA, Vol. 1

EXTREME TEXTS

The long-awaited  “Extreme Texts” feature at Jacket2 edited by brilliant scholar-poet Divya Victor is out! And I’m pleased to be a part through MURDER DEATH RESURRECTION’s exploration of kapwa, transcolonialism, cubism/abstract expressionism, mathematics, subjectivity, weariness, a Pacita Abad painting, the illusion of the random, and, always-and-forever-for/from-me: Poetry. Here's my essay.

I heartily recommend reading through the entire issue as some of the most innovative work—innovative thinking—in contemporary poetry is presented here. Here’s link to the editor’s Preface with Table of Contents on the right side: http://jacket2.org/feature/extreme-texts

I am particularly heartened (I hadn’t expected it) that my work is presented in the same issue as a “Philippines Dossier”—as Angelo V. Suarez calls it with his intro, “Philippine literary production under fascism.” I am reminded of a leading Filipino poet who’d recently contacted me about publishing a book here in the U.S.—because while they normally would be able to publish it in the Philippines, it includes anti-Dut poems and that would make it difficult for such a publisher. (Relatedly, there are implications to how such a Dossier ends up being in Jacket2, a non-Filipino pub except for how cyberspace encompasses global of course)

Much to read. Much to consider. Do join me in perusing.

[Thanks to Carol Dorf and Leny Strobel and the Babaylan Files for their help with my essay. And Tom Beckett--I continue to give credit to the inspiration of your book DIPSTICK/DIPTYCH.]

BOOK-MATCH PROGRAM FOR NICK CARBO FUNDRAISER

If you haven't heard, poet and cultural activist Nick Carbo recently had to have his right foot amputated on an emergency basis--a month before his insurance coverage would have kicked in! There's a GoFundMe fundraiser to help with his daunting health costs. Recent donations helped him get a wheelchair and a shower chair. I'm grateful that Paloma Press is running a Book-Match program for donations. Basically, donations of at least $25 will garner 3 publications worth more than double that amount:

MANHATTAN: An Archipelago by Eileen Tabios
BLUE by Wesley St. Jo and Reme Grefalda
MARAWI by Eileen Tabios and Albert Alejo

Thank you, Paloma Press!

For the same $25 donation, you can receive a copy of Nick Carbo's edited anthology PINOY POETICS from Meritage Press (contact me if you wish to avail yourself of this offer). Let's help a poet who's helped many poets.

"NO ONE IS A STRANGER TO ME"

What a wonderful way to begin a new year. Thanks to Valerie Morton and editor Gregory St. Vincent Thomasino for this e-ratio review of AMNESIA: Somebody's Memoir!  You can go HERE for the entire review, but here's an excerpt:

In the words of this exciting poet, from Chapter 24: I Forgot the Shadow of Gray       But I will never forget we walk on the same planet      and breathe from the same atmosphere.  I will never      forget the same sun shines on us both.  I created my      own legacy.  No one is a stranger to me. It is a privilege to have reviewed this work which has left me with much food for thought and changed my own perception of the world.  It is much more than a poetry collection—it is a clear invitation to re-join the human race and view it as our own rather than belonging to someone else.

(If you're interested in following up to get your own copy, links are HERE for SPD and Amazon.)

BANNED BOOKS WEEK 2016

I'm pleased to be part of Lantern Review's celebration of BANNED BOOKS WEEK. Go to link to see what I and others suggest. For me, there was no clearer suggestion than PINOY POETICS, edited by Nick Carbó. Do check out others over at Lantern Review. Thanks to the editors for asking me -- my suggestion is part of quite an interesting list featured HERE.

EXCAVATE MOI, WHY DONTCHA!

Nothing like the sight of Author Copies to a brand new publication!"

Get yours HERE. This. One. Explodes.

SEEDINGS: THE INAUGURAL ISSUE!

I'm delighted to have an essay, "Babaylan Poetics & the MDR Poetry Generator" in Seedings, Issue One, edited by Jerrold Shirroma!  The essay presents the conceptual underpinning to my most recent books, among other matters.

Please also check out the other participants, certainly an impressive roster:

Pura López Colomé – from Speaking in Song (hearing and forgetting) (tr. Dan Bellm)
Rachel Tzvia Back – In the Quiet Hills: Lost & Found Lyrics
Michèle Métail – from Earth’s Horizons (tr. Marcella Durand)
Rachel Blau DuPlessis – from Numbers
Aleksandr Blok – On Death (tr. Peter France)
Lu Xun – Three Poems (tr. Matt Turner)
Pierre Reverdy – from Painted Stars (tr. Dan Bellm)
Brian Lucas – Five Poems
Guillermo Parra – Moro / Westphalen
César Moro – Seven Poems (tr. Guillermo Parra)
Emilio Adolfo Westphalen – Seven Poems (tr. Guillermo Parra)
from The Aeneid, Book VII (tr. David Hadbawnik)
Marcella Durand – Four Poems
Demosthenes Agrafiotis – from Y’es (tr. Angelos Sakkis & John Sakkis)
Elke Erb – Haste Makes Waste (tr. Rosmarie Waldrop)
Etel Adnan – At Two in the Afternoon (tr. Sarah Riggs)
Nathaniel Tarn – Three Poems
Eileen R. Tabios – Babaylan Poetics & the MDR Poetry Generator
René Depestre – Seven Pillars of Innocence (tr. Colin Dayan)
Santiago Vizcaíno – Four Poems (tr. Alexis Levitin)
Paul Verlaine – Forgotten Little Arias (tr. Keith Waldrop)
Sarah Riggs – Manifolds
Jaime Montestrela – from Fluid Fables (tr. Cole Swensen)
Τζών Σακκής – Τα Νησιά (Μετάφραση, Θανάσης Φωτιάδης Λίνα Τσουκαλά και Άγγελος Σακκής)
Rosmarie Waldrop – Doing
Larry Kearney – On Translation
Λάρρυ Κέρνυ – H Μετάφραση (Μετάφραση, Άγγελος Σακκής)
Laura Moriarty – from Late Mourning
John Olson – Two Poems
Sara Tuss Efrik – Gland (tr. Johannes Göransson)
Will Alexander – from Concerning the Henbane Bird

COLONIZING THE COLONIZER

A new review of INVENT(ST)ORY by Grady Harp is HERE!  He sez, among other things (and to explain this post's headline),

"Eileen is capable of using the English language in ways few have ever attempted or could mimic."

Since, if you click on link, you'd be at that site, perhaps you can also do what readers do on that site... unless, of course, you're at AWP this week.

COMING TO LOS ANGELES!

These books soon to arrive for the Los Angeles City Public Library System!  Check them out!  Literally...