“I, began, to, Die, and, I, began, to, Grow”: Incarnational Theopoetics in the Poetry of José Garcia Villa

Authors

Nathan Timothy Chan, Ateneo de Manila UniversityFollow

Abstract

Although critics have observed that Villa’s poems use religious language and imagery, this has not been sufficiently explored. The article interprets the first set of seven comma poems that Villa published in 1948 as exemplifying his incarnational theopoetics in both form and content. In these poems, God or Christ is poetically, yet sometimes illogically, enmeshed with the created order. God assumes a body—not only the body of Man, but also the bodies of animals, machineries, and objects. This portrayal of God as embodied allows a deeper understanding of not only what Villa’s conception of God is, but also how his conception of God relates to his poetics.

Recommended Citation

Chan, Nathan Timothy (2023) "“I, began, to, Die, and, I, began, to, Grow”: Incarnational Theopoetics in the Poetry of José Garcia Villa," Perspectives in the Arts and Humanities Asia: Vol. 13: No. 2, Article 2.
Available at: https://archium.ateneo.edu/paha/vol13/iss2/2