THE PHILIPPINE Center of the International PEN (Poets & Playwrights, Essayists, Novelists) will launch “Lyrical Objects,” the new collection of poems of top poet Marne Kilates, on Feb. 27, 5 p.m., at Solidaridad Bookstore, Padre Faura Street, Ermita, Manila.
Objects can assume the quality of the lyric. Only because poetry comes from the objects themselves.
No ideas but in things, said the Imagists. No music either. Everything breathes and vibrates in rhythm with everything.
In the musica univsersalis, as the ancients say, or in the lay of the locality. Poetry is a natural state, a fact that the poet, often serendipitously discovers.
This collection brings together 60 new poems written over three months before the poet’s 60th birthday (plus some revisited and revised from previous collections), to catch up with “time’s dictation” as “Dry leaves swirl in an eddy” and “The world keeps turning in a whirl.”
To catch up, too, with the poet’s daily encounters with reality and memory that breathe, vibrate, and celebrate life in counterpoint or harmony.
“If one counts by one’s digits the poetry books Marne has crafted through the years, Lyrical Objects would complete the first handful, and would represent the poet’s pollex or digitus primus,” said poet Marjorie Evasco.
Literary critic Gémino H. Abad said “Marne’s closest rival in poetry is only himself.”
“Kilates reminds us that language in poetry should be adroit and concise, yet… risk-driven and reckless,” said Joel Toledo
“Lyrical Objects” is published by the University of Santo Tomas Publishing House. The launch is open to the public. Call 2541068.
