Bloodlust: Philippine Protest Poetry

by Alfred A. Yuson (Editor), Gémino H. Abad (Editor)

177 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2017

About the author

Also known as Krip Yuson.

Alfred Yuson has authored 23 books, including novels, poetry collections, short fiction, essays, and children's stories, apart from having edited various other titles. Yuson was conferred the Southeast Asia Write Award (SEA Write) in 1992 in Bangkok, and has been elevated to the Hall of Fame of the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, the Philippines ‘ most prestigious literary distinction. He has frequently represented the Philippines in Literary conferences, festivals and reading tours in the United States, Japan, China, Finland, Scotland, Thailand, Malaysia, United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, South Africa, and Columbia, and his works may be found in many international anthologies.

Yuson is a founding member of the Philippine Literary Arts Council (PLAC), Creative Writing Foundation, Inc. and Manila Critics Circle, and was Chairman of Writers Union of the Philippines . His bibliography includes the potry collections: Sea Serpent, (Monsoon Press, 1980), Trading in Mermaids (Anvil Publishing, Inc., 1993), Mothers Like Elephants (Anvil Publishing, Inc., 2000) Hairtrigger Loves: 50 Poems on Woman (University of the Philippines Press, 2002), and the translation, Love's A Vice/ Bisyo ang Pag-ibig: Translations into English of 60 Poems by mike L. Birgonia (National Commission for Culture at the Arts, 2004). Yuson currently writes a literature and culture column for The Philippines Star. He also teaches fiction and poetry at Ateneo de Manila University, where he held the Henry Lee Irwin Professorial Chair in Creative Writing. His two novels, The Great Philippine Jungle Café and Voyeurs and Savages are studies of Philippine culture. Another novel, The Music Child, was among five works short listed for the second (2008) Man Asian Literary Prize.

(From panitikan.com.ph.)

Reviews

[Josh Bata · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book strips Duterte's illusory cloak of invincibility. A lyrical form of resistance. A call to speak for the 'deliberately silenced.'

[Khayri Woulfe · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bloodlust didn't receive quite the buzz despite its supposed "relevance" to the status quo in the Philippines, and it's not hard to see why.


The book, which is a yet-another-compilation-of-poems aimed to protest the alleged victims of Martial Law and Extrajudicial Killings failed in every way, in the same way its predecessors flew short.


In part, this is because people are awakening to the fact that all these “protest” books were merely EXPLOITATIONS by authors, known or not, to cash in from decades-old issues and causes that are overdue.


People might be asking what have these books done aside from fattening the pockets of its authors and publishers, amping the names of amateur writers? It’s the same cycle over and over. And these books never gave justice to the victims of abuses or whatsoever these protest books are trying to fight for.


In the age of social networking, literactivism apparently no longer works in printed press. Hence, there are more respect given to spoken poetry and online literature, which are generally free, than towards these fat-cow books trying to cash in from contemporary issues, clipping the names of famed authors along it to add more value.


Yet, upon the first pages opening Bloodlust, you’d instantly regret your wasted money in ever buying this poetry book.


The tone is also appalling as it tries to rehash the Martial Law and forcefully makes it relevant today.


Each poem is but a mix of word salads that is more about vocab-flaunting instead of giving an empowering message to the heart of sympathetic people.


A victim of Martial Law might ask, “is this book truly about us?”

Martial Law remains a good business up to present. And so is EJK. This is the only reason “artists” find it hard to move on from these antiquated topics.


There is no justice given to this book, as there was no justice given to the victims of Martial Law and EJK after all the authors and artists who have been exploiting them.

[Jonah Leigh Ramos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Counter-memory!