The Garden of Wordlessness: Selected Poems

by J. Neil C. Garcia

The Garden of Wordlessness brings together in a single volume the author's own selection of his published poems from 1992 to 2004. Taken collectively, the poems describe a narrative arc that follows the dark and frenzied movement of the suffering self to the shapely distractions of the world and back, even as this same journey truly begins and ends in the garden of words that is the body. This is the same place where the soul dares to stake its affectional home, claiming everything and nothing, by turns shading into flower and shadow, trepidation and desire, fruit-bearing death and breathtaking life. Here, underneath the verdure of the body's figures, the soul speaks without words, whose voice is silence and light.

Genres: Poetry

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

J. Neil C. Garcia finished his BA Journalism (magna cum laude) in the University of Santo Tomas in 1990. He is currently teaching creative writing and comparative literature at the University of the Philippines , Diliman, where he also serves as an associate for poetry in the Institute of Creative Writing . He is the author of numerous poetry collections and works in literary and cultural criticism, including Our Lady of the Carnival (1996), The Sorrows of Water (2000), Kaluluwa (2001), Philippine Gay Culture: The Last Thirty Years (1996), Slip/pages: Essays in Philippine Gay Criticism (1998), Performing the Self: Occasional Prose (2003), The Garden of Wordlessness (2005), and Misterios and Other Poems ( 2005) His latest critical work , Postcolonialism and Filipino Poetics: Essays and Critiques , is a revised version of his PhD dissertation in English Studies: Creative Writing, which he completed in 2003. He is currently working on a full-length book, a postcolonial survey and analysis of Philippine poetry in English.

Reviews

[madeline · Rating 5 out of 5]

At last it heaves clear,
this knowledge:
the bright, imagine world -
a conversation between you and me,
soul and body.

[Rhick Deuel Esteves · Rating 5 out of 5]

Looking for gay poetry better than the overrated poetry of Ocean Vuong? This is the answer.