Title: The Sizzle of the Imperceptible and the Perceived
Review: In the electrically lyrical and hauntingly meditative prose-poems of Reproductions of the Empty Flagpole, Eileen Tabios is "always drawn to the imperceptible," to aporias, abstentions, and disappearances, and to the lack in appearances, such as flags and mirrors, as well as the sizzle of the richly perceptible: "A golden spark glints from a cufflink struck by a sun ray." A poet who "can be" herself "only in exile," who hovers over "alien lands that are impossible to be grasped," Tabios seizes myriad answers to the question, "How far will I descend for love?" Sidestepping and sideswiping the tyrannies of fixed identity, this postcolonial poet, one who "deconstructs rainbows," can help her readers feel "Michelangelo's slaves surge out of stone" as she shouts, "The King is dead! Long live us all!"
Is this product review negative?