As I Tango

Santiago B. Villafania
 Copyright © 2016 Santiago B. Villafania
All rights reserved. No part of the contents of
this book may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or
any other information storage and retrieval
system, without prior permission in writing from
the author.

ISBN-13: 978-1541025547
ISBN-10: 1541025547

Cover photo: The Seagulls of Monte Carlo by MPR

 To Marilyn

quis amat valeat, pereat qui

nescit amare || bis tanto pereat
quisquis amare vetat
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

With especial thanks to Ute Margaret Saine

 As I Tango

Nizar Sartawi
Elmer Ordoñez
Manila Times Sunday Magazine
California Quarterly
Taos Journal of International Poetry and Art

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Table of Contents
 As I Tango

iii Dedication
v Acknowledgments
xv Proem
xvi A Night Piece

1 Sonnets
4 Mar is the sea
5 crimson days & nights
6 rose-red amaranth
7 Byzantium night
8 cornflower blue skies
9 on a day like this
10 there are eightfold path
11 Good Friday
13 sapphire sky
17 a dreary morn
18 the long hours
19 Trance
21 lover’s moon
22 i’m missing the voice
23 midnight is
24 here’s to the music
25 a summer zephyr
26 if you be a storm
27 you are my smile
28 you are both
29 don’t mind my mood swing
30 a quantum poem
31 this wretched heart of mine
32 Soliloquy
35 for who can fight well
36 this space between us

37 missing your smile

38 suddenly
39 morning tea
40 drowsy eyes
41 & so we move on

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42 morning rain
43 crescent moon
44 i am done & grey
45 Chère
46 walk & bathe in the rain whenever you
can
47 October
48 one of those days
49 Note to Self
50 et no nayari labat
51 i was there
52 come O heart
53 emel ira
54 natetelek ak
55 midnight tonic
56 sika so linawa na anlong kon aya
57 silent sun
58 empty room
59 a walk in the rain
60 morning breeze
61 burning a page
62 isulat ko so
63 in too deep
64 my heart’s desire
65 i wish i lived
66 you & i
67 Li Bai
68 missing
69 have you lips of
70 storm in summer

71 meta octothorp of meh

72 imagine yourself
73 a gufra
74 summer night sky
75 imagine a dot
76 To be fortysomething is to be a poet
77 a duet

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 As I Tango

78 Dream Sequence
81 the night
82 Hiroshima Interlude
87 Of the Colors of Roses
88 zen morning
89 Kama Poetika
90 A Leman’s Song
91 poetree
92 flowers bloom
93 exile me in
94 now give me your storm
95 undeath me a poem
96 text & the city
97 waiting for
98 these poems are flowers
99 angob na miskey
100 first blush
101 how can i describe
102 i’ll catch that arrow
103 (when) (into) (your) (nakedness) (feast)
104 (oft) (have) (i) (seen) (cerulean) (skies)
105 can’t you not hear it
106 on our fingertips
107 midnight is when
108 you come to me
109 what are poems but embers
110 anggapo’y begtewen ko ya dalan

111 Paean
112 Epitaph
113 Songs of the Flamingo by MPR
119 Moment
120 no i cannot tell i know your heart
121 but within this space there is you
122 Pinabli
123 space and distance
124 the locks
125 to do list

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126 Tercet
127 panon takan anlongan natan ya labi?
128 pilalek taka ed sayan bekta
129 midnight is a drag
130 Portrait of my heart
131 the aftertaste of
132 Charbagh
133 Geography
134 i see your face above me
135 andi agtaka ingaran
136 a)redondilla)ala)villa)for)marilyn
137 your smile that could freeze
138 if only
139 past midnight
140 Soleil
141 pale moon
142 maodiem lamet
143 searching the dark skies
144 your silence
145 and so it begins
146 hands that cupped my face
147 singa aplos na dagem-amian
148 it’s been a night & i have seen its
beauty
149 Out of nowhere

151 September song

152 There’s this distance again. This
feeling
153 dark skies
154 these lyrics are not
155 natan a labi
156 labitewen
157 i threw a pebble into the quicksand
158 iambicleriheworkshopoeticoitus...
159 the emperor sleeps
160 after Gaius Valerius Catullus

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 As I Tango

161 Cornu copiae

163 a silhouette you
164 she blooms in blue
165 between the pages
166 reading
167 sakey ya angob mo labat
168 lamet
169 distance
170 to what shall
171 binary love
172 one must learn
173 How do I love thee?
174 the taste
175 the nakedness of your soul
176 counting syllables
177 makapangiras so ombangon
178 looking at that moon
179 searching for the earth’s
180 in my noosphere
181 i sense
182 Zeus to Danaë
183 the south
184 she
185 if

186 a ciryl for our terquasquicentennial or

septaquintaquinquecentennial
anniversary
187 intoxicating midnight
188 recurring dream
189 the mathematics of modern love
191 Fragments
193 pebbles on a handful of sand
194 forever is now
195 anticipation
196 e
197 Ex Animo
213 Unsonnet

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 Santiago B. Villafania

214 Swansong of Agoy

215 Tresiere | etre ensemble
220 Aprodite’s words were
221 my poetry is without form
223 a desire to paint you
224 the touch of your hands
225 If there were
227 fallen stars
228 some days and nights
229 off on a tangent
230 to all the lost poets
231 Sulat para’d sika
233 cherry noir– my lips
234 to be near you where
235 To a Dawnbreaker
236 blue dawn
237 grayer far
238 seemingly
239 sleepless nights
240 quick steps
241 subtle signs
242 distant dawn

243 nothing here

244 postcards from Praha
245 Pareunia
247 un.so:nne;t
248 Sonnet
249 Inaro
250 Turpulence

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 Santiago B. Villafania

Proem

your eyes excelled the morning sun

your smile laden my breast with flame
i’ll boast upon that lilting sun
your beauty worthy of a name

O what shall I give but a song

a song to sing my love for you

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 As I Tango

a song to time and space belong

until the world is born anew

A Night Piece
from a Pangasinan serenade entitled “Malinak
Lay Labi”

the night is calm my love

and time is fleeting still
the wind is breathing low
kissed by the evening dew
how sweet it is to dream
that i have to wake for you
your fair attemper face
i shall always caress

O when the night is come

and you my love i see
the sadness all is gone
buried deeply in my soul
whenever i recall
loving ways you are wont to

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 Santiago B. Villafania

i shall not forget you

until i am laid to rest

xvi
 Sonnets

“Men are haunted by the vastness of eternity.

And so we ask ourselves: will our actions echo
across the centuries? Will strangers hear our
names long after we are gone, and wonder
who we were, how bravely we fought, how
fiercely we loved?” –Odysseus (Troy)

1.

when i behold the old westering sun

and feel over me the fall of the night
when bamboo leaves i hear humming
as one
sweet symphony ‘neath the gleaming
moonlight

and summer’s breathing attemper and

low
whispering soft uncouth sounds in my
ears
perhaps untold secrets that i should
know
or unheard love songs in the olden
years

then i think of thee, dear one, of our

prime
still strong, still in love & still young at
heart

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 Santiago B. Villafania

waiting for the last moment of our time

when the cold winds of Lethe keep us
apart

but bear in mind, my heart, that i love

thee
and this will always remind thee of me

2.

and when i am gone to where time

stands still
where no winds to blow or no rains to
fall
nor an inkling of light and sounds to fill
with music the empty space of my soul

or when i lay me down beneath the

sod–
cold hands folded on my breast O my
heart
remember me, remember me to God

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in memory we’ll never be apart

then in that void my love will lend me

wings
your prayers will light my flambeaus of
hope
though emptiness in my inmost-self
clings
in my long sojourn i shall never mope

O coeur, ma vie! if we meet in Zion

in God’s lap brief we love’s true
devotion

3.

in this age where love’s but a paltry

thing
where youthful hearts easily break or
bend
you came with the breeze of autumn
or spring
because of you i found myself again

i hear the song of your endearing eyes

each night when i have your voice in

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 Santiago B. Villafania

my ear
soothing my longing with your smiles
and sighs
you are to me the one i hold most dear

and when you are hurting do not lose

me
i cannot bear the pain of losing you
many a dreams have i seen you and
me
of moments in time that i am with you

and yes! you are my life now O chere

Mar
not my moon or sun but my sapphire
star

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 As I Tango

Mar is the sea

A place of blue
Raging waters
I dare to calm
Like this tempest
Yearning for your
Now & ever

Santiago B. Villafania (b. 1971,

Philippines), a bilingual Filipino poet who
writes in English and in his native language
of Pangasinan, is the author of poetry
collections: Ghazalia: Maralus ya Ayat
(2013), Bonsaic Verses (2012), Pinabli &
Other Poems (2012), Malagilion: Sonnets tan
Villanelles (2007), and Balikas na Caboloan
(Voices from Caboloan, 2005) published by
the National Commission for the Culture and
the Arts under its UBOD New Authors Series.

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 Santiago B. Villafania

Villafania has received several awards,

including the Asna Award for Arts and Culture
(Literature) in 2010. He is well known for his
effort in reviving Pangasinan as a literary
language.

He has been published/anthologized in

several countries and some of his poems
have been translated Spanish, Italian, Arabic,
and Hindi. His unpublished book of poems
Murtami was translated into Hindi entitled
Premanjali and released in the New Delhi
World Book Fair in 2013. He is a board
member of the Philippine PEN and a
commissioner for the Pangasinan Historical
and Cultural Commission.

“The classical tracing, the inventive and

subtle elegance characterizing the poetry of
Santiago Villafania, as well as the brilliant
parlance make him worthily an exceptional,
eloquent author composing at ease in the
multiple universe of several languages and
imaginaries.”
– Károly Sándor Pallai, Hungarian

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 As I Tango

oceanist, literary historian, poet, translator

and editor.

“Reading Santiago Villafania’s poetry gives

us the opportunity to take part in the human
experience in its wide variety. One cannot
miss the boldness, vividness and richness of
his imagery, the versatility of his topics, and
the universality of his themes. I have had the
pleasure to translate a number of his poems
into Arabic, and, despite the partial loss in
both sound and sense that translated poetry
is most likely to suffer, Villafania has been
well received and admired by Arab readers.”
– Nizar Sartawi, poet, translator and
educator.

“Santiago Villafania is a searcher with a

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 Santiago B. Villafania

seemingly insatiable curiosity and

endurance. His quest has brought him to
explore world poetry from points East and
West. He is no stranger to sophisticated
verse forms such the Sapphic strophe nor to
the diverse permutations of the Japanese
haiku. But he is not a formalist, he has
daringly explored Asian and Western cultures
in a very personal way and writes his mind
with a daring, invigorating, aesthetically
pleasing ease. In his poetry, Villafania
displays not only a breadth, but it feels very
much like a breath of fresh air. He has the
voice of a poet to be reckoned with.”
– Ute Margaret Saine, poet, translator,
editor

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 As I Tango

“Villafania is not afraid of short or long

poems; neither is he daunted by a pack of
images that at first glance appear disjointed
only to congeal into a gestalt that
concretizes his theme. Love poems are
among the most difficult to write, but
Villafania’s poetic mainstay are his
expressions of l’amour and is quite
comfortable with their emotive persuasion
without being maudlin.”
– Albert B. Casuga, Philippines-born
Canadian writer

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Santiago B. Villafania

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