Selected Poems and New

by José García Villa

Genres: Poetry

236 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Jose Garcia Villa was a Filipino poet, literary critic, short story writer, and painter. He was awarded the National Artist of the Philippines title for literature in 1973, as well as the Guggenheim Fellowship in creative writing by Conrad Aiken. He is known to have introduced the "reversed consonance rime scheme" in writing poetry, as well as the extensive use of punctuation marks—especially commas, which made him known as the Comma Poet. He used the penname Doveglion (derived from "Dove, Eagle, Lion"), based on the characters he derived from himself. These animals were also explored by another poet e.e. cummings in Doveglion, Adventures in Value, a poem dedicated to Villa.

(From wikipedia.org, retrieved 14 March 2011. More info here.)

Reviews

[Steno · Rating 4 out of 5]

As expected, slightly inaccessible at formalistic ang mga tula ni Jose Garcia Villa sa aklat na ito. Ang hindi ko inexpect ay karamihan, puro religious poems.

When I say religious, yes, tungkol kay God, kay Jesus, but the poems are not necessarily pro-God or pro-Christianity. In fact, may ilang tula na bordering on blasphemy. Halimbawa:

77

Now I will tell you the Future
Of God. The future of God is

Man. God aspired before and
Failed. Jesus was too much

God. Since God is moving
Towards Man, and Man is moving

Towards God--they must meet
Sometime. O but God is always

A Failure! That Time is the
End of the world. When God

And Man do meet--they will
Be so bitter they will not speak.

Taray, di ba? Isang makata lang ang kilala kong gumagamit ng symbols of Catholicism tulad ni Villa sa kanyang mga tula nang sobrang galing: my good friend Nico Pablo. So check out their work. Maganda, pramis!

Hindi lahat ng tula ni Villa ay madaling unawain, pero madali silang basahin. Gets? Maiikli lang kasi at hindi gaanong mabibigat ang mga ginamit na salita. Minsan nga wala pa! Tulad ng sikat niyang tula na The Emperor's New Sonnet.

Di ko nga sure kung nagets ko s'ya. Charot!

Anyway, ang isa pang naibigan ko sa aklat na ito ay iyong paliwanag ni Villa sa kanyang estilo. Halimbawa, inexplain niya ang rhyme scheme na ginamit niya at, take note, inimbento sa ilang tula rito.

It's called Reversed Consonance, kung saan ang huling tunog ng katinig sa huling syllable sa isang linya, o ang huling katinig sa isang salita, ay binabaligtad sa susunod na tugmaan.

For example: kapag ang huling salita sa linya ay 'light', ang puwedeng itugmang salita sa susunod na linya ay 'tell', 'tall', 'steal', etc. Or, kapag 'run', ang maaaring rhyme ay 'near'. Nakuha n'yo ba?

Meron din s'yang tula na puro comma sa pagitan ng bawat salita. Pinaliwanag din niya iyon at sinabing ang gamit ng comma ay poetic at hindi tulad ng sa prose. May pause sa pagbabasa pero hindi kasinghaba ng pause ng comma sa isang prose.

Mas maiintindihan n'yo ito kapag binasa n'yo si Villa. And I appreciate these explanations from the poet kasi hindi ako masyadong nawawala o nae-alienate ng mga tula n'ya. Fuck Barthes! To hell with the dead author! Charot! Hahaha!

Napakagenerous din ni Villa sa book na ito. Mayroon lang namang 245 na tula rito. But don't get intimidated. Sabi ko nga, maiikli sila at madaling basahin ang ilan.

Here's another example na feeling ko naencounter na ninyo before:

I can no more hear Love's
Voice. No more moves
The mouth of her. Birds
No more sing. Words
I speak return lonely.
Flowers I pick turn ghostly.
Fire that I burn glows
Pale. No more blows
The wind. Time tells
No more truth. Bells
Ring no more in me.
I am all alone singly.
Lonely rests my head.
--O my God! I am dead.

[justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

spur of the moment five star rating, but i m surprised by how much i enjoyed jose garcia villa's poetry. smart, restrained, and deceptive in its playful demeanor. he really was a genius, & i wish i could have met him

[Angelie Pangilinan II]

ok