FOUR POEMS

Abstract

Apparently, the short collection selected by Entrada embodies the lyrical finesse, structural fragmentations, as well as the metaphors and unpredictable associations of Paul Celan. Threadsuns, Poppy and Memory, and Glottal Stop: 101 Poems are my favorite collections of his. My personal pick is “Death of Fugue” which is a poem that exhibits dexterity and disguise. I love how these two elements engage themselves in a play, in a war of words and ideas. This is how my poetry works, and this is how I fell in love with Celan’s poetry. Such lines as “Black milk of daybreak we drink it at nightfall” and “Your hands full of hours” are immortal. I also think that Michael Hamburger did an impeccable job in translating Celan’s poetic text from the original Romanian. And that’s Paul Celan: he certainly has a spot in my Mt. Rushmore of World Surrealist Poets.

As regards the linguistic approach emanating from my body of work, I certainly write my poems in English, but the conscious play of ‘code- switching’ can be an effective poetic device. This is how exophonic poets articulate their own form of rhetorical protest. As a Filipino poet writing in English, the art of poetic code-switching allows me to play with language and embrace the Asian American identity in my writing. My inspiration for this kind of poetic practice, therefore, was the Korean American poet, Cathy Park Hong. Her “All the Aphrodisiacs”, for example, retains the cultural intimacy within the Asian American cultural community.