#38 [I have observed pink monks eating blue raisins] by José García Villa
#38 [I have observed pink monks eating blue raisins]
José García VillaI have observed pink monks eating blue raisins.
And I have observed blue monks eating pink raisins.
Studiously have I observed.Now this is the way a pink monk eats a blue raisin:
Pink is he and it is blue and the pink
swallows the blue. I swear this is true.And the way a blue monk eats a pink raisin is this:
Blue is he and it is pink and the blue
swallows the pink. And this is also truth.Indeed I have observed and myself have partaken
of blue and pink raisins. But my joy was different:
My joy was to see the blue and the pink counterpointing.
SELECTED BY ASA DRAKE
Most of my family wouldn’t consider themselves readers, but I think at least four relatives helped get this book to me in the US so that my Tita Nena and I could talk about these poems together.
I really enjoy the sensorial nature of Villa’s work, the images and textures, which even if invented, feel “true.”
ABOUT ASA DRAKE
Asa Drake is a Filipina/white poet in Central Florida. She is the author of Maybe the Body (Tin House, 2026) and Beauty Talk (Noemi Press, 2026), winner of the 2024 Noemi Press Book Award. Her chapbook, One Way to Listen (Gold Line Press), is the winner of a 2023 Florida Book Award. A National Poetry Series finalist, she is the recipient of fellowships and awards from the 92Y Discovery Poetry Contest, the Rona Jaffe Foundation, Storyknife, Sundress Publications, Tin House and Idyllwild Arts. Her poems can be found on The Slowdown Podcast, The American Poetry Review, and Poetry Daily.
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SHARED WITH GRATITUDE
This poem appeared in Selected Poems and New by José García Villa, published by Bookmark, 2013.
DESCRIPTION
“Villa’s poems are avowedly experimental in form and language, To the literal-minded grammarian his syntax may seem peculiar, and some few critics may find in his poems traces of Emily Dickinson, E. E. Cummings, Marianne Moore and Wallace Stevens—but the point is that he has read them as Ben Jonson read “the ancients,” and has taken them “as guides, not commanders.” The central facets of Villa’s imagination, his spirit, his wit, his love of paradox, his transcendental convictions are his own—and all these are expressed in a slightly foreign accent that has gained authority. (Source)”
ABOUT JOSé GARCíA VILLA
José García Villa was born in Manila in 1908. He attended the University of the Philippines. He won a short story contest through the Philippines Free Press and used the prize money to travel to the United States, where he studied at the University of New Mexico. In 1933 his Footnote to Youth: Tales of the Philippines and Others (Charles Scribner’s Sons) became the first book of fiction by a Filipino author published by a major United States-based press. In 1973 he was named a… (more)
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ENDNOTES
- This is Day 5 of Poems We Carry, celebrating the 20th anniversary of Read A Little Poetry—a living archive I’ve nurtured for two decades. For this milestone series, I invited writers I deeply admire to share poems that have meant something to them over time.
- Explore other works in pursuit of: joy • hunger • colours • Or browse the index
- If this work resonates with you, please consider supporting the archive. Thank you for reading.
