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I TAKE THEE, ENGLISH,
FOR MY BELOVED
by Eileen R. Tabios
ISBN:  0971333289
504 pages; Paper; $24.95
Release Date: 2005
Distribution: Small Press Distribution, Baker & Taylor and Amazon.com
CONTACT: Jane Augustine at MarshHawkPress@cs.com

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Eileen R. Tabios has an enormous tonal range in her poetry. A breathless intensity may be her most characteristic mode.—kultureflash: Headlines From London

Eileen R. Tabios' new collection. I Take Thee, English, for My Beloved, contains and melds the forms of poem, memoir, art monograph, play, novel and questionnaire. Here are four discrete collections that would stand on their own but which, together, form the vibrant expanse of a book that affirms: not only does this poet and writer speak English but she loves English.

Although Tabios' first poetry collection received the Manila Critics Circle National Book Award for Poetry in the Philippines, where she was born, she has lived for over three decades in, and is a citizen of, the United States. The initial impetus for this collection stemmed from her meditations on being fluent in only one language—but a language that colonized her birthland and about which she is still asked the question by strangers as she travels throughout North America: "Do you speak English?" This bespeaks the consistent "Other"-ing experience imposed by many on people of color, even second- or third-generation Americans.
Nonetheless, Tabios—a "transcolonial" poet—refuses to allow adverse socio-political elements to deter her from what she feels she must do as a poet, particularly as a poet of eros: to love her raw material of English. From such love, she not only crafts poems denoting a unique vision, but writings that transcend inherited literary forms. Tabios considers the term "transcolonial" to describe a postcolonial perspective that goes beyond the referenced context of colonialism. One result is the "hay(na)ku," a poetic form which Tabios invented as a community-making gesture; here, the community encompasses both Filipino and non-Filipino poets gathered together through a love of Poetry. This collection features the first publication of "The Official History of the Hay(na)ku."

This collection ends with a close reading by respected poet Ron Silliman of one of Tabios' poems. Silliman concludes, "Tabios tries for more in one page than many other poets would attempt in 20. And she pulls it off."

EILEEN R. TABIOS has released a poetry CD; three e-poetry collections; and written, edited or co-edited fourteen books of poetry, fiction and essays since 1996 when she traded a finance career for poetry. She is also a community-oriented conceptual artist who pens the poetics blog "The Chatelaine's Poetics" at http://chatelaine-poet.blogspot.com; who invented the "Hay(na)ku" poetic form; and whose "Poems Form/From The Six Directions" project has been exhibited several times in California.  In 2006, she will release a new poetry collection, The Secret Lives of Punctuations, Vol. I.

(Publisher's release)

OOV Bookshelf 2005

DECEMBER 2005 FEATURE In Ordinary Time: Poems, Parables, Poetics (1973-2003) by Gémino H. Abad Ilustrado Politics: Filipino Elite Responses to American Rule by Michael Cullinane One Hundred Love Poems: Philippine Love Poetry Since 1905 by Gémino H. Abad and Alfred A. Yuson SEPTEMBER 2005 FEATURE Tutubi, Tutubi, Wag Kang Magpahuli sa Mamang Salbahe ni Jun Cruz Reyes Fourteen Love Stories edited by Jose Y. Dalisay Jr. and Angelo R. Lacuesta Makinilyang Altar ni Luna Sicat-Cleto The Givenchy Code: An Homage and a Parody by ER Escober Bago ang Babae: Mga Tula ni Rebecca T. Añonuevo Southeast Asian Archaeology: Wilhelm G. Solheim II Festschrift edited by Victor Paz Pablo Neruda: Mga Piling Tula edited by Virgilio Arlmario and Romulo P. Baquiran, Jr. Remembering NVM by Jose Y. Dalisay, Jr. JUNE 2005 FEATURE A Book of Her Own by Leny M. Strobel Ang Singsing ng Dalagang Marmol by Isabelo de los Reyes Ipaghiganti Mo Ako by Precioso Palma Sa Ngalan ng Diyos by Faustino S. Aguilar Selected Poems by Merlie M. Alunan Decimal Places by Ricardo M. de Ungria Mga Kaluluwa sa Kumunoy ni Efren R. Abueg Sapagkat Iniibig Kita ni Epifanio San Juan, Jr. Constructing the Filipina: a history of women's magazines (1891-2002) by Georgina Reyes Encanto APRIL 2005 FEATURE A Country of Our Own: Partitioning the Philippines by David C. Martinez I Take Thee, English, for My Beloved by Eileen R. Tabios Habagat at Niyebe ni Edgar Bacong The Forbidden Book: The Philippine American War in Political Cartoons by Abe Ignacio, Enrique de la Cruz, Jorge Emmanuel and Helen Toribio JANUARY 2005 FEATURE Cousins of Color by William Schroeder Buhay sa Angono (Life in Angono) by Timoteo Saguinsin Waiting for Mariang Makiling: Essays in Philippine Cultural History by Resil B. Mojares The Invisible Palace by José Manuel Tesoro Matadora poems by Sarah Gambito Servants of Globalization by Rhacel Salazar Parreñas