Archipelagic by R. A. Villanueva

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend December 22, 2014   Archipelagic   R. A. Villanueva

Not vinegar. Not acid. Not sugarcane pressed to mortar by fist, but salt: salt, the home taste; salt, the tide; salt, the blood. Not Holy   Ghost, but a saint of coral come to life in the night crossing a field of brambles and thorns, the camps of pirates beat back to the bay   with hornets. Not Santo Niño. And not a belt of storms, but this: girls singing, an avocado in each open palm, courting doves;   a moth drawn to the light of our room you take to be your father.            Copyright © 2014 by R. A. Villanueva. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “What to say when someone asks where home is? Especially when ‘home’ for you can mean the Philippines—somewhere you haven’t lived? When you were born a hemisphere away, but have inherited its faiths and myths, its capacity for awe? You give yourself permission to feel at home in your blood; you try to invent a new language for your answer.” —R. A. Villanueva   R. A. Villanueva is the author of Reliquaria (University of Nebraska Press, 2014). A founding editor of Tongue: A Journal of Writing & Art, he currently lives in London, England.   Photo Credit: Rachel Eliza Griffiths Most Recent Book by Villanueva   Reliquaria (University of Nebraska Press, 2014) "Congregation" by Parneshia Jones "Steppingstone" by Andrew Hudgins "Home is so Sad" by Philip Larkin Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038