EILEEN TABIOS Engages
THE BEAUTY OF GHOSTS: FIVE VOICES: A Theater of Poetry by Luis H.
Francia
I come late to this book: Luis Francia’s THE BEAUTY OF GHOSTS was published in
2010. But I did arrive to it and was delighted to do so—I’m familiar with Luis
Francia’s work and this swiftly became one of my favorites among his
books. The poems bear his trademark
vigor, wit, and adherence to no-unnecessary-word-in-poems. But the book became my favorite, too, for its
structure—it presents poems from what the poet calls “Five Voices.” They are
Alter Ego (contemporary middle-aged Filipino-American)
Comfort Woman (sex slave of the Japanese during World War II)
Manong (Filipino immigrant old-timer)
Overseas Filipina Worker / Nurse / Bar Girl
Teener (teenaged Filipino-American rapper)
The book begins with these opening lines from Alter Ego “Remembering
Memory”—
I want to write before I forget,
Before night falls, prematurely.
I want to write, to remind
Myself to write about you.
I share the above opening because the book doesn’t present
five voices just to present five personas or point of views. The poems also work as theater dialogue; THE BEAUTY OF GHOSTS has been produced
twice so far in a play format (the world premiere was in 2007 and a restaging occurred in 2014), hence, the book’s subtitle of “FIVE VOICES: A
Theater of Poetry.” One, thus, can look
at the above four lines and see how they create an effective opening to a play.
Of course, one must consider the work, too, as poems. It
seems to me that a test of a project like this is to consider whether Francia
was able to write from the different personas, say, a “Comfort Woman.” Well, here’s a sample poem below:
COMFORT WOMAN: METAMORPHOSIS
My metamorphosis, from
Cocoon to butterfly
hair my glory and black crown,
in my face and breasts,
the bloom of change, like
the buko of coconut trees.
The garden of days opened up to
embrace
Me, the nights possessed
A new mystery, and my heart began
To beat a little faster, for
The first stream had broken
through.
Someone inside me declared
Her independence of me:
Young woman was I.
In my parents’ eyes sadness
Mixed with joy, for their little
Girl had disappeared.
Where was she?
Most of the days she was still with
me
running with the boys and girls
from the barrio
and playing games except for a few
days
each month when the hidden spring
bubbled within piercing me.
Aware I became of looks and stares.
Ama
now eyed men warily, instructed
My Kuya to protect me always
Ina reminded me daily to recite the
rosary
Counting out the Hail Mary’s and
the Glory Be’s.
Santa Maria, Madre de Dios
Was a chant familiar to me as I
walked
To school each day.
The world still turned but it
turned
Now to a different tune, dark and
bright,
Sad and giddy at the same time.
What’s interesting about the above poem, to me as someone
familiar with Francia’s poetry, is the distinct Francia punch and musicality
therein. But, for instance in lines like these—
Girl had disappeared.
Where was she?
Most of the days she was still with
me
running with the boys and girls
from the barrio
and playing games except for a few
days
each month when the hidden spring
bubbled within piercing me.
Aware I became of looks and stares.
—one can easily inhabit the persona of a girl transitioning
to womanhood. Francia did his job as a (master) poet: he belied the lie of
speaking as a young woman (let alone one just blossoming into adulthood) to
present an authentic character. By doing a great job, he achieves the political
underpinning to his project—what the “Teener” captures in “Growing Pains”:
If you don’t know your history
You’ll be sorry! You’ll be history!
Highly recommended to lovers of not just poetry but history.
*****
Eileen R. Tabios loves books and has released about 40 collections of poetry, fiction, essays, and experimental biographies from publishers in nine countries and cyberspace. Her most recent are THE CONNOISSEUR OF ALLEYS (Marsh Hawk Press, 2016) and INVENT(ST)ORY: Selected Catalog Poems and New 1996-1915 (Dos Madres Press, 2015). More information is available at http://eileenrtabios.com
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