Collection
Poetry in English
Contemporary Philippine poetry in English by Filipino poets writing from the Visayas, Mindanao and the diaspora. These poems test what English can carry when it is shaped by Philippine places, histories and other mother tongues.
Read the same tradition in other languages: tula in Filipino, balak in Binisaya and poetry in Waray, or browse all poetry. For prose in English, see short stories, creative nonfiction and critical essays.
Every poem appeared in one of our journal issues. Meet the poets in our contributors, or read the submission guidelines.
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White Bodies Splayed on White Sand
1. There is no mapping out a spacedefinable only by the pigment of its occupants. In these shores,the economy of skin and hair and eyes outweighs the mandate…
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Urban Jungle
Concrete trees mount this junglethe home of the corporate hoarders and lunchless laborers.Sunlight veils its walls, producing shadows to shade the windowless homes.Traffic symphony signals the roofless residents to wake-up,…
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Candy Keeps An Island Alive
Every December, my uncle pops rice paper candies in my palm. They barely survive the voyage to mouth. I can’t explain how the heat from my supplicate hands boil its…
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At Napagod ang Hagdan
Maya’t maya ang pagdaan mo sa aking mga baytang, Tila isang dambuhalang dumadagan sa katawan. Malimit pang magmadali ang hakbang mong may pagyanig, Na para bang isang lindol at ikaw lang…