Decimal places: Poems

by Ricardo M. de Ungria

A first experience of America is at the heart of this collection. In 1987, on a Fulbright grant, the author travelled to America to study at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, for his M.F.A. Creative Writing. He stayed there for three years meeting people and making friends, travelling whenever he could, and cultivating the peripatetic and peregrine in himself, and gathering a rich hoard of experiences that found expression not only in this book but also in his subsequent books. This is one Filipino native's first flush of excitement at being in the land of his neighbors' dreams, and the experiences left an indelible mark on his impressionable spirit.

Genres: Poetry

121 pages

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Ricardo M. de Ungria earned his A.B. Literature from the De La Salle University, and later obtained an M.F.A. in the Creative Arts from the Washington University in Missouri, U.S.A in 1990. He is a founding member of the Philippine Literary Arts Council (PLAC) and the Unyon ng mga Manunulat ng Pilipinas (UMPIL).

For his poetry, he has received recognition from all over the world. Not only has he been a Fellow at Fulbright, Hawthornden Castle International Retreat for Writers, Bellagio Study & Conference Center, and Washington University, but he has also gathered awards like the Academy of American Poets Prize. Similar achievements include nods from the Saint Louis Poetry Annual Contest, Florida State University's State Street Poetry Contest, Manila Critics' Circle, Palanca, CCP Verse-Writing Contest, and the Free Press.

He has six books of poetry, including R+A+D+I+O (1986), Decimal Places (1991), and the most recent, Pidgin Levitations (UP Press, 2004), a luxurious, refreshingly unabashed collection of the poet's earlier work. He has also edited a number of anthologies, three of which are Passionate Patience: Ten Filipino Poets on the Writing of Their Poems (1995), Catfish Surviving in Little Schools (1996) and The Likhaan Anthology of Poetry and Fiction (1996).

Ricardo de Ungria used to hold positions as an associate of the U.P. Institute of Creative Writing, Chancellor of the U.P. Mindanao, and Head of the Committee on Literary Arts under the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA).

Reviews

[Ramzzi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my first to witness Ricardo M. de Ungria. A prominent figure in Philippine letters, de Ungria is both an academe-mainstay and poet. Decimal Poems is a collection of poems which he chronicled his travels on foreign land, from the east to the U.S., and back to the Philippines again, and in the end, set loose in direction to make a statement that the brown, Filipino feet endures all travels. I am a Filipino.

In spite the musicality intertwining with his verbosity, de Ungria puts his verses in an excessive display. The earlier poems of this collection are passively good, impressionistic but not impressive, which only deserve one reading. The latter poems do show an amazing rhythm, but most of them are masculine, while some have the recurring motif, or even the word as is—'abscence,' showing the scales of his dragon skin worn out. And there his heart is shown under the weight of being alien and longing in a different land. In the end, most poems do stand out, with lines with such literary magnanimity. The rest, are only linguistic lavishness and manly inhibitions. In the end, you learn more of what is absent.

[Jim Agustin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book many years ago when it came out. I was too young then, just starting to read poetry and write my own. I remember not being ready for it then, although I loved the poems I felt I could grasp. It was lucky that I brought my copy with me when I moved to Cape Town, otherwise it would have been damaged and thrown away after the Ondoy floods that swept through my parents' home in Marikina.

Reading it now with a certain maturity I find de Ungria's poetry illuminating and deeply humanist. I will hopefully update this review as I finish the book.

[Arvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first collection of poetry I bought, way back in the mid-90s. This is a must-read.