[Philip Quinlan]

Not, perhaps, exactly the right place to put this but I wanted to mention a rather wonderful book I have of Filipino verse in English [sic].

It is called "A Native Clearing". edited by Gemino H. Abad - University of the Philippines Press.

One example of a beautiful poem in the anthology is Landscape II by Carlos A. Angeles, from which I hope I may quote one stanza (for educational purposes) at least without offending copyright:

Sun in the knifed horizon bleeds the sky,
Spilling a peacock stain upon the sands,
Across some murdered rocks refused to die.
It is your absence touches my sad hands
Blinded like flags in the wreck of air.

the rest of it is equally good, if not better, and I guess you could call it a 15 line sonnet.

Written in English it is, nonetheless, a translation of sorts of non-native English sensibility into semi-native English (language and form).

The anthology contains many gems like this and I thoroughly recommend it. Some of it (unsurprisingly I suppose) comes over like some of the better translations of Neruda.

Has anyone come across this or similar?

I would happily share more in private correspondence.

Philip