Manhattan, An Archaeology by Eileen R. Tabios

Manhattan, An Archaeology 

by Eileen R. Tabios  

Copyright 2017 by Eileen R. Tabios  

Paloma Press 

Tucson, AZ 

ISBN 978-1-365-87509-0 

Softbound, 111 pages + notes & acknowledgements $40 (before discount) 

Review by Zvi A. Sesling 

Since the 1990s-- when I first encountered  Eileen Tabios’s poetry , she has continually taken readers on a different journey of creativity with each book.  Ms. Tabios is one of the Philippines' great gifts to the United States.  Her poetry is innovative, definitely creative and never repetitive.   

Manhattan: An Archaeology is  in six parts:  The Artifacts, Post-Nostalgia, Big City Cante Intermedio, Winter on Wall Street (A Novella-in-Verse), Vacation: Skiing Away From Manhattan, Clyfford Still Studies and 2016 Diptych.  For our edification she adds Selected Notes to Poems. 

My personal favorite is Chapter Nine in the Novella called “The Firm”  

Bellowing like a bull in heat  

was encouraged 

But certain things just weren’t done –  

we learned them in our first year: 

Do not dress better than your boss  

Do not get drunker than your boss 

Come to work neat and pressed 

like a fine pair of sheets 

But if your tie was not undone 

sleeves rolled up 

shirt tail hanging out of your pants 

by 9 a.m. 

you weren’t working hard enough 

Never wear Hermes ties 

leave those to lawyers and golfers 

Never wear cheap shoes 

When you get a new pair 

polish them 20 times 

before debuting them 

Your shoes should not look bought 

but like you inherited them 

from a rich uncle 

Never get a cheap haircut 

A bad apartment at a good address 

is greater than 

a fabulous apartment at a bad address 

If your boss gives you a Mont Blanc pen 

at the end of a salary negotiation 

you were taken to the cleaners 

Never insult a client – no matter 

how stupid or rude, they have 

the required $20 million to open 

an account at The Firm 

If one of your colleagues is fired 

never speak to him again: 

failure is transmittable 

Never show excessive zeal 

Never never never 

Always always always 

* 

A wealthy father 

can exist 

A wealthy uncle? Never 

The wealthy never  

underestimate  

lineage 

One feels compelled to read Ms. Tabios not only for the humor, the entertainment, and the talent, but for the lessons.  And there are usually many from which you can pick .In “The Firm” there are lessons like the one I  taught myself-- when my first public relations boss said: To be a good PR man you need to have three straight martinis and not feel a thing. 

To which I replied:  If I had three straight martinis I wouldn’t feel a thing. 

But as Tabios often writes, I digress.   Back to the review. 

  

With Tabios the reader is always headed to new ground, new thought,a certain joy, an enlightenment, if you will, that free the readers from the dullness they have read before.  Here are some examples:

On Conceiving Silent Pleas(e) 

--after PH-635, Only on canvas (1967) 

I believe I am reminding you that no one owns space, though you can cup it 

within a folded palm and feel the same power that ignites a short, fat man  

looking at his thin, tall wife—diamonds studding the platinum manacles around 

her scented neck and wrists— 

Park City, Utah Tabios unleashes these six lines to open a five page poem: 

1. 

Together, we have only imagined the sky 

a trapdoor with a lost key bow seducing eagles 

whose darting eyes never reveal affection— 

Once, yours did (the setting the back seat of a cab) 

which made me gather fallen petals 

from roses gifted by an unnamed chambermaid— 

Finally this one: 

Letter From Paris to New York 

--November 2016 

When offered Versailles 

I shook my head 

Once was enough for me 

No need to gorge 

on Foie gras, etcetera 

though many do 

There are many other lines in Tabios’s poetry that intrigue – there always are.  Her language is light years ahead of many poets from countries around the world, yet remains accessible and exciting. 

This book is well worth the time you spend reading it. 

__________________________________________ 

Zvi A. Sesling 

Author: The Lynching of Leo Frank (Big Table Co., 2017), Love Poems From Hell (Flutter Press, 2017), Fire Tongue (Cervena Barva, 2016), Across Stones of Bad Dreams (Cervena Barva, 2011), King of the Jungle (Ibbetson Street, 2010). 

Editor of Muddy River Poetry Review, Bagel Bards Anthologies Nos. 7, 8 and #12. 

Publisher, Muddy River Books