EILEEN TABIOS Engages
Ang Armadong Paraluman Sa Panahon Ng Kilabot / The Armed Parmour In A Time of Terror by E. San Juan, Jr.
(University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, 2023)
There’s a sense of earned wisdom throughout E. San Juan, Jr.’s latest (and bilingual Filipino-English) poetry collection, Ang Armadong Paraluman Sa Panahon Ng Kilabot / The Armed Parmour In A Time of Terror. I don’t know if that effect is me or the poems themselves… but since the poem is a tree whose existence is unknown until it's read, the effect certainly can stem from both. A poem can only fully live with the accompaniment of an audience (e.g., reader or listener). I know the poet outside of his books—please allow me to refer to him as “Sonny”—and so know him to be wise (thus, political) and experienced. But the poems, too, would make a stranger discern this effect, poems like “Scenes From Las Vegas, Nevada” that critiques the Venetian Hotel (and makes a lie out of the claim it is) “Innocent of the brutality of the CIA and US troops…”):
It's logical that Sonny's political stances would be reflected in his poems. What’s not as talked about, I believe, are his admirable experimental tendencies without which any poet would risk being banal. For example, his poem is, as its title notes, (presumably in case the poet made it up) a “Transcription of Selected Bytes From A NASA Computer in Washington DC, USA.” As is the case with a work employing this strategy, the poet might not determine the quoted words but must determine the rub of each quote against each other. The placement of the found material is significant, as would be the case visually with collage art. One can see Sonny’s deftness by this two-sentence combination:
“Is the steel bridge to Camp Bagong Diwa rusting? What is the genealogy of discourse?”
or this combination:
“What is valuable? Why miscarriage when there was no pregnancy?”
as well as the poem’s ending:
“Is this a sleight of hand? Why are you mute?”
That powerful ending can’t help but implicate the reader for contributions, even inadvertent ones, to creating a world suffering from humanity’s presence.
It’s appropriate that the collection ends with one of my favorite poems, “Kayumangi Subterfuge.” Kayumangi means brown in color or complexion, and can refer to the brown [hu]man.
Descartes, of course, coined “Cogito, ergo sum” or “I think, therefore I am.” Many a meme has been created from that phrase of the French philosopher’s “first principle.” It’s why many are also not aware that the full meaning is more “Dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum” or “I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am.” Given the brown man’s history, it’s important to respect the role of doubt. Whatever doubts we have in the face of historical abuses, we must not lose faith in our existence—that seems an apt brown take on Descartes’ idea that “We cannot doubt of our existence while we doubt.”
As I usually am when I read Sonny San Juan, I come away from this collection of poems still dumb, but nonetheless wiser. Salamat, Sonny. Highly Recommended.
*****
Eileen Tabios has released books of poetry, fiction, essays, art and experimental prose from publishers around the world. Recent releases include the novel The Balikbayan Artist; an art monograph Drawing Six Directions; a poetry collection Because I Love You, I Become War; an autobiography, The Inventor; and a flash fiction collection collaboration with harry k stammer, Getting To One. Other books include a first novel DoveLion: A Fairy Tale for Our Times (2021) which was translated by Danton Remoto into Filipino as KalapatingLeon for a 2024 release from UST Publishing (University of Santo Tomas). More information is at https://eileenrtabios.com
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