[This] collection deals not only with the devastation of Super Typhoon Haiyan that visited Tacloban in November 2013. Its thematic concerns range over a wider and richer territory: the persistence of memory, the legacy of childhood, the blend of folk beliefs, folk tales, and folk ways that continues to color the lives of the contemporary Warays. The special strength of the poems is their clarity of thought and language. Here, there is none of the false profundity and technical virtuosity found in much of youthful poetry around. None of the vain attempt to impress with big words. Sugbo’s poetry is simple and accessible almost to a fault. Its characteristic stance is that of understatement rather than melodrama. It is grounded in the native soil of native sensibility, rich in local lore and color. It overflows with images of water and wind and greenery, the concrete constants of the [East] Visayan landscape. His is the poetry of the quotidian, the ordinary, the quiet grace. Its humor is subdued; its social commentary is biting but glancing.

Dr. Jaime An Lim, critic, professor, poet, and fictionist

Author: Victor N. Sugbo
ISBN/ISSN: 978971542937-5
Category: Literary; Poetry
Copyright: 2021
Pages: 130pp
Size: 6x9
Type: PB/SP