Reliquaria

In his prize-winning poetry collection Reliquaria, R. A. Villanueva embraces liminal, in-between spaces in considering an ever-evolving Filipino American identity. Languages and cultures collide; mythologies and faiths echo and resound. Part haunting, part prayer, part prophecy, these poems resonate with the voices of the dead and those who remember them. In this remarkable book, we enter the vessel of memory, the vessel of the body. The dead act as witness, the living as chimera, and we learn that whatever the state of the body, this much rings true: every ode is an elegy; each elegy is always an ode.

 

Acknowledgments
Sacrum
1SwarmLife DrawingThese Bodies Lacking PartsTelemachyLike when passing graveyardsFish HeadsIn Memory of Xiong HuangAftermathsGod Particles
2All Souls’ DayDespedidaSacramentalSocorroBlessing the AnimalsConfluencesTrapsOn TransfigurationDivination
3AntipodalIn the dead of winter weBallastAs the river crests, mud-rich with forgotten thingsDrifting toward the bottom, Jacques Piccard recalls the skyCorpusVanitasWhat the bones tell usIconoclastsInvocation1. Davenport, Iowa2. Holofernes, to Judith at the strike3. Medusa, at first sight of her face4. On the sixth day, Ugolino thinks of his children5. Isaac speaks of fingers6. Feast of Three Kings, Jersey CityAfter this, Loving Kindness and Asanga flewMine will be a beautiful service
Notes