Beloved

by Rolando A. Carbonell (Editor), Alejandro R. Roces

209 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1963

About the author

Rolando A. Carbonell was a celebrated Filipino poet, writer, and editor known for his love poems and prose. Among his most famous works is the poem Beyond Forgetting, which appeared in his 1961 book of the same name. He was also a spiritual and philosophical figure.

Reviews

[Michael David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many poets have come and gone in Philippine letters and yet Jose Garcia Villa remains to be accepted as the Philippines' pre-eminent poet. I didn't understand the reason why until I read the love poems featured in this collection. Few people remember Carbonell as a poet nowadays; Andres Cristobal Cruz is more infamously remembered as one of Marcos's propagandists than as a worthy poet. While there were occasional gems from Jose Lansang, Gloria Socrates, and Tarrosa Subido, their poems simply paled in comparison to the compact and concise puissance of Villa.

I recall Lyric Cry being read to us in our Poetry class. Twenty years did not efface any of its power, and no one else in the collection was able to rival Villa's ability. His poems alone elevate the collection to that rating, and I have no more doubt as to why he remains to be Philippines' best poet ever.

I can no more hear Love's
Voice. No more moves
The mouth of her. Birds
No more sing. Words
I speak return lonely.
Flowers I pick turn ghostly.
Fire that I burn glows
Pale. No more blows
The wind. Time tells
No more truth. Bells
Ring no more in me.
I am all alone singly.
Lonely rests my head.
--O my God! I am dead.