Mostly in Monsoon Weather

by Marne L. Kilates

collection of poetry

Genres: Poetry

110 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Poet, translator, editor, and sometime book designer, Marne Kilates (given name, Mariano) was born on November 5, 1952, in the town of Daraga, Albay province, the Bicol Region in the Philippines. He has lived his youth in the shadow of the mountain, Mayon, the landmark of conical beauty and volcanic unpredictability.

Reviews

[Jaymee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somewhere in between 3-4 stars. While I loved the poems about Manila, the rain, and especially Bicol, I didn't care much for the ones on other countries. Still a good read which will resonate with you.

[Marne]

My third book

[Gigi · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's nice to see a glimpse of Bicol through Sir Marne's musings and memories. I'm glad nakabisita na ako doon. The poems have a feel of time passing and growing old. Medyo malungkot but there is also anger in there about corruption na hanggang ngayon nangyayari pa rin. Some of my favorites are Sunday Afternoon at the College of Music, The Log Pond at Mostly in Moonsoon Weather 1 and 2 at All things turned toward the light, The last Acacia.

[june · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

"—So are you happy here? // —In the sense that we've always"

"The importuning tenderness / We couldn't resist, in this half sleep / Of shadows trading in cold caress."

"Glaring, it scolds my ambivalent love, my want for air. / Unmoored from Love, I breathe the scalding air."

"Spare us from life's suddenness. All I know, / But no one is prepared to understand / That love is as painful as grief."

"Now that I have armed my knowing with names / My own love wanders,"

"Mostly in monsoon weather
I can't remember

...

I held your hand
But even love felt clammy
Under the weather."

+ first three couplets in monsoon ghazal

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ah well, how does one rate a book of poems? Per poem? As a whole?

When I first discovered modern Philippine poetry in English, I was smitten. So smitten I decided to dabble into poetry. But the more I read of poems in English by Filipino writers, the more I realized that there is a different conflict involved in the Pinoy poet. Do I write about home in a foreign language? Do I stick to the evergreen theme of love? Do I remain relevant and accessible to my fellow Filipinos even as I use words and references not learned in grade school English?

Marne Kilates is one of my favorite Pinoy poets in English simply because his poems have that balance between sound and meaning. (Younger poets experiment with wit, trying to make the next "The Emperor's New Poem", but I digress.) In this collection, his poems move from the roads of Metro Manila to European streets, from the childhood memories we may share to tours we might not afford, from historical events of our nation to folklore of another Asian nation, with the same constant monsoon melancholy. Mostly.

Here is my fave poem from the collection, a poem I first read when I was still a college freshman.

All Things Tend Toward the Light

All things tend toward the light:
The germ and the flower,
The pale tendril of mung-bean sprout;
The newborn blinking at the mother’s eyes,
The newly awake from fears of the dark.

We turn on the lights in an empty house,
We build bonfires before sea and ice,
We plumb and rage against depths obscure
And ominous, we rejoice at words found
Luminous in the silence of the night.

And all things end in light:
The moth in the flame, the dark hour
Before sunrise, the body and atom burning,
Becoming one, not with the orbit of dead
Planets, but with the sparkle of stars.

This poem left me with a wonderful feeling of subtle light. :)