Heartsongs
Rexel, Diosa and Bombette.
Bacolod-bred Felino S. Garcia, Jr. launched his first book of poems, "Heartsongs and Other Poems" at the Museo Iloilo recently.
According to Danton Remoto in his introduction, the book is a collection of the most amazing love poems he's ever read. "I hem and haw and plead a busy life as a teacher-writer-single father-gay advocate when some young people leave me their so-called poems and ask me to write a blurb or an introduction. But why offer a sheaf of words for work that is obviously rushed, half-coked, even still raw? Mercifully, such qualities are not manifest in Heartsongs," he said.
The book is divided into four sections. "Coming to Fruit" deals with love's beginnings, when the days pass in a blaze of happiness. "M Skin's Terrain" is the title of the second part of the book. Here, the poet talks about the art of cartography, but this time, he maps the slopes and seas, the caves and coves of the beloved. "Beyond This Lifetime" is the title of the third part of the collection.
Marcel Milliam and his string poi.
The spirit of appropriation continues here. In an hommage to the finest love poems, the sensual and the spiritual have become one in this poem, wedded in utter and singular bliss. "The Wind Relents" is the last section in the collection. And as if to mimic the natural order of things – of love running its course like a fever – it deals with endings.
"Warm, witty and wise, grainy with the many truths about the landscapes of love and longing, the best poems in this collection have already earned their secure places in the many rooms that comprise Philippine writing in English," added Remoto.