Eileen Tabios


from DREDGING FOR ATLANTIS


BENIGN SYPHILIS

A city lies
in her belly

There, ashbins
emanate songs

Palm trees refuse hunching
before twilight

Knick-knacks
retain vivacity

Everyone cheerfully picks
lemons in Los Angeles




VESUVIAN

Coal among the olives
Olive among the coals

The abbess gambles
to roof her refugees

As the Adriatic sighs and sighs




MINOR RIDDLE

Colour of coppered mustard
evokes
the toes of Giovanni Bapini
whose name reigned at a trattoria
opposite the Pitti Palace

Abominable manners
e.g., he would murder a woman
and not attend her funeral

Oh, incandescent breath of civilization!

Minarets growing within muddy whirlpools

Some believe Florence to be a lady
with flowers in her hair

Florence is a city
(interrupting blue sky)
with streets of stones




!   !

Pointillist experiments
pupil mischievous angels

singing
! The Sublime Always Wink !




“REINFORCING THE HITHERTO NEGLIGIBLE”

Whose essence
………………….winks

in the to-and-fro
………………….of your cufflinks?

(An occasional snap stings someone’s face)




WHITE AS GRECIAN MARBLE

A trolley loaded
with ivory busts

glides against air
overtaken by snow

beyond this crocheted lace
of white dandelions

and one orchid
recalling its youthful orgies




ARS POETICA

I am climbing a distorted mountain

……………………………………..the summit

s
u
b
s
i
d
e
s into anticipation of
…………………………………….Repose


“which never comes”




THE BIRTH OF A RAINBOW

Innocent excrements
humming their dotage

seduce doves
Occasionally, a cobalt egg




IMPISH MUSIC

Adolescent eros
a consistent source
for radium
of the Word




IN PASSING

They see the dolls

For a moment, their eyes relax




SCUMBLE-D

I cannot remember the name of that seacoast city
but it trembled


..............................it is near XYZ
a town with hyphens


Now, so many deaths


............................the only art left—
the preparation of grace





Eileen Tabios has written 11 poetry collections, a collection of art essays and a short story book. Recipient of the Philippines' National Book Award of Poetry, she recently released The Secret Lives of Punctuations, Vol. I (xPress(ed), 2006). Forthcoming in 2007 will be a new poetry collection, THE LIGHT SANG AS IT LEFT YOUR EYES (Marsh Hawk, 2007). She also edited or co-edited five books of poetry, fiction and essays. She performs the poetics blog, The Blind Chatelaine's Poker Poetics and edits the journal GALATEA RESURRECTS while steering Meritage Press. She is the Poet Laureate for Dutch Henry Winery in St. Helena, CA where, as a budding vintner, she is arduously and long-sufferingly researching the poetry of wine.


DREDGING FOR ATLANTIS will be published soon by Otoliths.

 
 
 
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