REFUSE GHAZAL by LUISA A. IGLORIA

REFUSE GHAZAL

By Luisa A. Igloria

(July 2020)

Size: 3” x 3”

Meritage Press’ Minitage Editions is delighted to release REFUSE GHAZAL, the book-length poem with illustrations by Luisa A. Igloria! We present the poem itself, followed by an "Artist Statement" for the book as well as images of the unfolding book.

Refuse Ghazal

The woman begs to cover her husband’s body
with a blanket, but the police refuse—

Their daughter sits on the curb, wailing into her hands.
Someone will try to pull her away, say Shh; she will refuse.

A train whistle cuts through the rain. Leaves quiver and mix
with shadows in the alley— the only witnesses that won’t refuse.

Everyone else averts their eyes: the duck egg vendor, the drunk,
men out for a smoke; late night owls at the bar. All refuse.

Mid-October, near dawn. The pedicabs ghost away. Tinny rattle,
gravel spray. How many deaths as of today? The mind wants to refuse

these horrors. The MO’s like this: two masked men on a motorbike ride
up to their target. Shots ring out. Every day, bodies pile up like refuse. 

Artist Statement

Before the blank miniature book arrived from Eileen Tabios in the mail, I'd had no formal plans about the content I would include—except that it would be one of my poems. I also did not know what it would physically look like. What I got was a blank book about 3 inches square, with a rich gold cloth binding adorned with a rhinestone and pearl floret on the front cover. And then I thought of my poem "Refuse Ghazal," which I'd written about the EJKs (Extra Judicial Killings) under the current Duterte regime since he came into office in July 2016—and of the thousands of young people, even children under the age of 5, who have been killed without compunction. These guided my ideas of composition and the actual execution of the artwork throughout the pages. First, I wrote out the poem using a brush pen, taking care to leave in-between pages and spaces because I knew by then I would be using a combination of ink pen and watercolors. The paper is not of heavy stock, so I worked a few pages at a time during the day over maybe 4 days, airing sections out in between. The images came to me as I progressed; as well as a 2-page spread which I decided to design as an EJK word search, using some of the first names of the child and youth victims of EJKs. The ghazal itself plays on at least two meanings of the word "refuse"—one, as a verb, signifying active resistance or noncompliance with something; and two, as a noun, carrying the meanings of garbage, detritus, waste. EJK victims are from some of the poorest and most destitute communities in the Philippines. The pages on which I inked the final "refuse" of the poem combine what I hope to convey about the ambivalence and contradictions between the weighty meanings of the term, coupled with the richer object behind the letter S: a strip of intricately patterned T'boli beadwork, with tassels ending in hawk bells.

Throughout the book, I have also interspersed words and phrases/lines (in Tagalog/Filipino) that typically occur in prayers:

Paalam (Goodbye)
Bangungot (Nightmare)

Dalamhati (Sorrow)

Ayuda (Entreaty/Help)

Gunita (Dream)

O Panginoon madali ka

sa pagsaklolo sa amin.

Ipanalangin mo kami, O

Santang Ina ng Diyos.

(O Lord, hasten

to come to our aid.

Pray for us, O

Blessed Mother of God.)

O Maria

Ipinaglihing

walang sala

(O Mary

Conceived

without sin)

O Diyos

ilawit sa

akin ang

iyong

tulong

(O God

extend

to me

your help)

These seemed to be the most fitting tonal accompaniment to the poem itself, in addition to the images. I heard them in my head as murmured interjections, perhaps said under one's breath, but no less intense for the wishes they carry.

Minitage Editions is grateful to Luisa A. Igloria for her donation of REFUSE GHAZAL to the Miniature Book Library.

REQUIEM FOR MY PRE-COVID19 LIFE, OR KEEP YOUR WORRIES IN HERE by MELINDA LUISA DE JESUS

Requiem for my Pre-COVID19 Life, or Keep Your Worries in Here

By Melinda Luisa de Jesús

(July 2020)

Size: 1.5” x 3”

The Miniature Book Library is delighted to welcome a book sculpture containing a poem by Melinda Luisa de Jesús! We think it quite clever, and welcome this tin-bound accordion book to the collection!

About the Project

When we asked Melinda for some background to her book, she replied:

How I decided to create the CBD tin minibook: procrastination is the mother of invention! I am trying to finish a bear of an academic essay, but found myself making lots of other poems and flash fiction instead. Since I was a little kid I've been obsessed with little containers like the BREEZ CBD one (which [husband] Bob thinks is hilarious because his last name is TINSman) so I've been collecting them during this pandemic as I've tried to self-dose my insomnia. I finally had to get some Ambien but that's another story...anyway! I had started the list of things I missed as I was going to put it all in the little book you sent me and MT; after the poem manifested itself I realized it needed to be placed in the tin itself, like one would do with worry dolls. I'm sure it's not the last poetic sculpture I'll make as we ride out this insane moment in time. Thank god for the availability of cannabis in CA!

Here is Melinda's poem (click on images to enlarge):

~~

Melinda Luisa de Jesús is Associate Professor and former Chair of Diversity Studies at California College of the Arts. She writes and teaches about Filipinx/American cultural production, girl culture, monsters, and race/ethnicity in the United States. She edited Pinay Power: Peminist Critical Theory, the first anthology of Filipina/American feminisms (Routledge 2005). Her academic writing has appeared in Mothering in East Asian Communities: Politics and Practices; Completely Mixed Up: Mixed Heritage Asian North American Writing and Art; Approaches to Teaching Multicultural Comics; Ethnic Literary Traditions in Children’s Literature; Challenging Homophobia; Radical Teacher; The Lion and the Unicorn; Ano Ba Magazine; Rigorous; Konch Magazine; Rabbit and Rose; MELUS; Meridians; The Journal of Asian American Studies, and Delinquents and Debutantes: Twentieth- Century American Girls’ Cultures. 

She is also a poet and her chapbooks, Humpty Drumpfty and Other Poems; Petty Poetry for SCROTUS Girls’ with poems for Elizabeth Warren and Michelle Obama; Defying Trumplandia; Adios Trumplandia!; James Brown’sWig and Other Poems; and Vagenda of Manicide and Other Poems were published by Locofo Chaps in 2017. Her first collection of poetry, peminology, was published by Paloma Press in 2018. 

In Spring 2019 Melinda was the Muriel Gold Senior Visiting Professor at the Institute for Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies at McGill University in Montreal, Canada where she organized the Pinay Power II: Celebrating Peminisms in the Diaspora conference (see pinaypower.ca for more info). 

She is a mezzo-soprano, a mom, an Aquarian, and admits an obsession with Hello Kitty. More info: http://peminist.com 

TINY BOOKS FROM MERITAGE PRESS' Minitage Editions

(click on images to enlarge)

Although I've not wished to collect blank journals or blank books, many have come my way just by hanging around miniature books. To turn these journals into "books," I occasionally create projects through which I can hand-write into the journals or ask other writers and artists to do so. I "publish" these books through my Meritage Press' tiny book imprint, Minitage Editions. Here are the results (to date):

Individual Titles

Where I Write by Lori Desrosiers (2020)

5 PAGES, ONE BOOK by Ulysses Duterte, Jr. (2020)

from beyond my window: the Covid-19 Poems by Donna Fleischer (2020)

REFUSE GHAZAL by Luisa A. Igloria (Meritage Press/Minitage Editions, 2020). Size: 3" x 3"

Neighborly by Genevieve Kaplan (2020). Size: 1.75" x 2.25"

Prelude to Bi / sym / me / try by Denise Low (2020). Size: 1.75" x 2.2.5"

Hay(na)ku in the Time of COVID-19 by Rebecca Mabanglo-Mayor (2020). Size: 1.75" x 2.25" 

TINY STICKERS: A COVID-19 AUTOBIOGRAPHY (March 2020) by Eileen R. Tabios (Meritage Press’ Minitage Editions, Saint Helena, 2020)

ALPHABET: Hay(na)ku Drawings w/ Poem For Rimbaud by E.R. Tabios (2007)

5 PAGES, ONE BOOK by Ulysses Duterte, Jr.  (Meritage Press’ Minitage Editions, Saint Helena, 2020)

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THE SECRETS OF POETS: AN ANTHOLOGY (2019)

Editor: Eileen R. Tabios

Participants: Susan Terris, Eileen Tabios, Cristina Querrer, Jim McCrary, Agnes Marton, Neil Leadbeater, Marton Koppány, John Bloomberg-Rissman, John M. Bennett, and Brian Cain Aene

Size: 1.75" x 2.25"

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TINY BOOKS From 2008

STEPS: A Notebook by Tom Beckett (Meritage Press/Tiny Books Series, San Francisco & St. Helena, 2008). Size: 1.75" x 1.75"

Speak which: hay(na)ku by Jill Jones (Meritage Press/Tiny Books Series, San Francisco & St. Helena, 2019 re-release of 2008 edition). Size: 1.75" x 1.75"

Randion screpts by Jukka-Pekka Kervinen (Meritage Press/Tiny Books Series, San Francisco & St. Helena, 2019 re-release of 2008 edition). Size: 1.75" x 1.75"

some hay by lars palm (Meritage Press/Tiny Books Series, San Francisco & St. Helena, 2019 re-release of 2008 edition). Size: 1.75" x 1.75"

"...And Then The Wind Did Blow...": Jainaku by Ernesto Priego (Meritage Press/Tiny Books Series, San Francisco & St. Helena, 2019 re-release of 2008 edition). Size: 1.75" x 1.75"

from THE TRADITION by Juliana Spahr (Meritage Press/Tiny Books Series, San Francisco & St. Helena, 2019 re-release of 2008 edition). Size: 1.75" x 1.75"

All Alone Again by Dan Waber (Meritage Press/Tiny Books Series, San Francisco & St. Helena, 2007 and 2019 re-release of 2008 edition). Size: 1.75" x 1.75"