Eileen R. Tabios:
THE LIGHT SANG AS IT LEFT YOUR EYES: OUR AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Marsh Hawk Press
ISBN 10: 0-9792416-2-6
ISBN 13: 978-0-9792416-2-8
Paper, 376 pp., 8.8x6
$19.95

“A critique of presumptions of transparent referentiality and unproblematic narrative—coupled with the aesthetic pleasure of stretching the imagination with formal innovations—has been an important feature of all of Tabios’s poetry.” —Jacket Magazine

On April 11, 2006, Filamore B. Tabios, Sr. died of brain cancer and its complications. In writing about her father, Eileen R. Tabios explores reconciliation with Ferdinand Marcos’ legacy through deliberate empathy with the former Philippine dictator’s daughter Imee; pays homage to Judas Iscariot whose Gospel, discovered during her vigil by her father's deathbed, reveals him to be the most loyal disciple, instead of greatest betrayer, of Jesus Christ; meditates on the murder statistics of the 20th century's leading killers, from Idi Amin to Adolf Hitler; considers the global Filipina pen pal phenomena; and engages with Dante Aleghieri’s Purgatorio.

In enacting Nietzsche’s notion that “Punishment is the making of memory,” Tabios also makes poetry by interrogating form. In this book, she uses commodity lists to create autobiography, practices ekphrasis to translate the painterly technique of scumbling, offers variations of the hay(na)ku form, relies on random collage to create visual poetry, and blurs the boundary between poetry and prose through texts originally written as blog posts. In addition, the book's overall trajectory reflects her disruption of narrative linearity in favor of Dante’s conception of the Trinity. For Dante, creation is simultaneous as regards What (God) creates, How (Son) creation unfolds, and the Form (Spirit) taken by what is created.

Tabios’ first poetry book, which received the Philippines' National Book Award for Poetry, inaugurated a body of works that has given her a reputation for multivalent poetry. The Light Sang As It Left Your Eyes reflects the poet’s primal battle with grief, showing how the death of a parent can be one of the most complicated, turbulent and wrenching experiences. It is also her most overtly political work yet, referencing her roots as a “Marcos Baby,” a member of the generation that grew up during Marcos’ martial law regime. To grapple with her father's death, the author addresses the world which created the context for their engagement. Ultimately, however, The Light Sang As It Left Your Eyes acts as a poet's testament for Joy—that she would cease writing this book only after she resurrected her father, which is to say, Love.

”The more I encounter Eileen Tabios’ writings--(and I mean that word ‘encounter’ exactly as I wrote it, for to read Eileen Tabios is encounter her, no more, no less) —the more I'm convinced that she’s a force of nature instead of a mere scribbling mortal like the rest of us. I imagine Dr. Bucke must have felt the same way about Walt Whitman who time and again in his poems tells us that who touches his book touches him. (Of course his eventual encounter with the aging poet is a different matter.) Tabios manages to do the same thing with this book, and in fact even begins to talk in ‘we’s’ instead of ‘I’s’ toward the end of it. . . .What energy! What charm! And this doesn't even begin to address the many virtuoso forms she displays in her ‘warm’ rather than ‘cool’ experimentalism.” —Ahadada

Eileen R. Tabios has released fourteen print, four electronic and one CD poetry collections, an art essay collection, a poetry essay/interview anthology, and a short story book. In her poetry, she has crafted a body of work that is unique for melding ekphrasis with transcolonialism, and her poems have been translated into Spanish, Italian, Tagalog, Japanese, Paintings, Video, Drawings, Visual Poetry, Mixed Media Collages, Kali Martial Arts, Modern Dance and Sculpture. She’s also edited or co-edited five books of poetry, fiction and essays. Her poetry and editing projects have received numerous awards including the PEN/Oakland-Josephine Miles National Literary Award, The Potrero Nuevo Fund Prize, the Gustavus Meyers Outstanding Book Award in the Advancement of Human Rights, ForeWord Magazine Anthology of the Year Award, Poet Magazine’s Iva Mary Williams Poetry Award, Judds Hill’s Annual Poetry Prize and the Philippine American Writers & Artists’ Catalagan Award; recognition from the Academy of American Poets, the Asian Pacific Association of Librarians and the PEN-Open Book Committee; as well as grants from the Witter Bynner Foundation, National Endowment of the Arts, the New York State Council on the Humanities, the California Council for the Humanities, and the New York City Downtown Cultural Council.
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