Doveglion: Collected Poems (Penguin Classics)

As an up and coming American born Filipino poet, I don't always understand the technique of his writing, but I think I understand the thinking behind his writing. I have been a jazz fan for many years, and the only comparison I can make of him is that I consider Jose Villa to be either the Paul Bley or Cecil Taylor of Filipino poetry. I try to write in an impressionistic style like how Keith Jarrett plays(I try anyway), but Jose writes in an avant-grade, broken up, abstract style like Paul or Cecil. I have the book, I read it from time to time, it's great, but it's not a style I would write in. Jose Garcia Villa is a great Filipino and world poet more people should get to know.

Few poets have impressed me, yet this one--Jose Garcia Villa--is, without doubt, the most impressive. What's striking is his rare gift of subtlety and mastery of the English words that his poems seem like brief, beautiful symphonies. That he is one of those underrated literary geniuses of our time is beyond me; but perhaps the poet Villa himself predicted his own reputation when he wrote in one of his poems thesepoignant lines: Nobody yet knows who I am, Nor myself may; Nor yet what I deal, Nor yet where I lead.