First View of “Girl Singing” (TTA4)

THE SECRET LIFE OF AN ANGEL

                -after Jose Garcia Villa’s “Girl Singing”

Girl singing. Day. The old man

of winter reaches for immortality
with a lengthening shadow
despite my skipping away.

Girl singing! I insist. Day!
I chant like the Babaylan I will
become to keep the clouds

from dimming the sun, from
milking the sky of its cobalt
gaze. He has worn many

disguises, and I have let him:
the original angel who fell
and fell. “It’s a glorious ride,”

he has whispered as part of his
spell. “This is a game of poker
I have lost, but no longer wish

to play,” I reply. Girl singing.
Day. I insist and proclaim:
“You cannot scoff, my secret

demon. For I played with high
stakes while you only watched.”
Girl singing. Day. I risked

everything while you hedged
so I could sing notes
only virgin boys can muster,

only fearful dogs can hear.
I lost myself in the ‘valley
of evil’ but my wings unfurled

to make me rise. Unlike your
wings, mine did not betray-
unfurling as I changed my mind

for Heaven nearer than a breath away.

    (By - and © - Eileen R Tabios)

[Note: I have a new project (1000 Views of “Girl Singing”). I’m going to take a poem by Eileen Tabios (I have her blessings) that is “after” a poem by Jose Garcia Villa (text of Garcia Villa poem available upon request. H's a wonderful poet who should be read, by the way. A treasure) and run about 100,000,000 (plus or minus) changes on it, using methods developed by bpNichol, Steve McCaffery, David Cameron, Jackson Mac Low, John Cage, Christian Bök, Oulipo, Charles Bernstein, Bernadette Mayer, etc. Can you think of any other artists etc who have developed procedures for manipulating/generating/messing with texts? If so, please let me know.

Some transformations/translations will require others to join in the project for a collaboration or two, e.g. one of Nichols’ transformations requires getting people more or less unfamiliar with the poem to read it once and then try to write it. If anyone is interested in playing, please leave a comment and a way to contact you and I'll get back to you. If you do want to play, please do NOT reread the poem]

Comments

[Ernesto Priego]

Ah, ok it's here! please ignore my email!