Morning poem

Likhaan: The Journal of Contemporary Philippine Literature, 2010

The editor's lament: We watched as he carefully unwrapped his little bundle from a scarlet kerchief, and spread it out on the dirt floor before our altar. It was given with a good heart, we could see. But we sighed. That sigh of a god who is sick to death of gifts of chicken feathers, and milk, and honey. Should we tell him? Damn it all man, we want GOLD ......

2006

SETU, 2019

2018

Translated from Japanese by Joshua Solomon: Thorny Roses Sand Pear Petals Rice Fish Early Spring Author acknowledges Ito Yumiko of Tsugaru Shobo for securing translation and publication rights

2015

The Decadent Review, 2023

Thesis: Poetry must prove its utility; Thesis: Poetry is a disappointment; Thesis: Poetry is fine, but try to write better poems. The ars poetica, the apology or defense of poetry, and the poetry manifesto are all united by a single goal: to save poetry. But… save it from what? Across nearly two millennia, Horace, Sir Philip Sidney, and Ben Lerner each wrote their own ars poetica: Ars Poetica, The Defense of Poesy, and The Hatred of Poetry. Each corresponding to one of the dialectics above.

Erothanatos, 2021

2018

2001

I stand still over him, okay, no problem, you be here, I'll move down the path, his length woven around limbs of September's last Roprecos, the remaining tomatoes dark, moist, cool, near the earth where a sweet scent implies everything is rotting: romantic. The phosphorescent trunks swelling like throats that spew green beads of nightshade dew.