Reliquaria

R. A. Villanueva was born in New Jersey and lives in Brooklyn. His honors include the 2013 Ninth Letter Literary Award for poetry and fellowships from Kundiman and the Asian American Literary Review. His writing has appeared in Virginia Quarterly Review, AGNI, Bellevue Literary Review, and elsewhere. A founding editor of Tongue: A Journal of Writing & Art, he teaches at New York University.

“The texture of R. A. Villanueva’s words stay in the mouth, shards of what is sacred, still is sacred: linguistic memento mori, if you will, that preserve and keep alive. Take your time with this glorious collection. Breathe in: ‘black eggs,’ ‘pomade,’ ‘concertina wire,’ ‘wreathed in gauze,’ and ‘Nakalimutan mo na ako. You have already forgotten me.’ I dare say you will not forget these remains that Villanueva has saved for us.”-Kimiko Hahn, author of Toxic Flora  "These vivid and deeply lived poems question 'every delicate gift we have thrown away.' Villanueva searches the world for the divine and—gorgeous poem by poem—he finds it."—Idra Novey, author of Exit, Civilian"R. A. Villanueva reminds us that poetry is a space haunted by history, so we try 'to name ghosts, to face them, dark as they are.' He musters an impressive courage to take up the task. And we're rewarded not just by Villanueva's immense thrill for language but by his ability to fuse the body's fact with the body's mystery. This is a terrific debut."—Patrick Rosal, author of Boneshepherds "Reliquaria convokes a public hymn that genuflects in the presence of the world's lucent crumbs and fragments. Villanueva's elegant argument with, within, and beyond Roman Catholicism infuses this collection with a classical urgency."—G. C. Waldrep, author of Archicembalo  "In precise yet lush language, these poems move so easily between the sacred and the quotidian, between past and present, and from lyric longing to physical satisfaction that it is startling to realize how much ground each poem covers, and how natural these transitions, at heart, truly are. . . . Reading his poems, I am delighted by the clarity and sinuousness of [Villanueva's] writing, by the force of his belief that the materiality of the world shares something with the beauty of words."—Paisley Rekdal, author of Animal Eye  "Villanueva's poetry is unabashedly sinewy, and uncannily, the more sinewy, the more soulful. Indeed, somehow he seems to straddle the divide between the visceral and the ethereal, and up there, where the air is crisp and clean and bracing, he is sovereign. So, no need any longer to go asking what's the matter, for the poems in this volume, quite simply, are."—Lawrence Weschler, author of Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder

• AcknowledgmentsSacrum1SwarmLife DrawingThese Bodies Lacking PartsTelemachyLike when passing graveyardsFish HeadsIn Memory of Xiong HuangAftermathsGod Particles2All Souls’ DayDespedidaSacramentalSocorroBlessing the AnimalsConfluencesTrapsOn TransfigurationDivination3AntipodalIn the dead of winter weBallastAs the river crests, mud-rich with forgotten thingsDrifting toward the bottom, Jacques Piccard recalls the skyCorpusVanitasWhat the bones tell usIconoclastsInvocation1. Davenport, Iowa2. Holofernes, to Judith at the strike3. Medusa, at first sight of her face4. On the sixth day, Ugolino thinks of his children5. Isaac speaks of fingers6. Feast of Three Kings, Jersey CityAfter this, Loving Kindness and Asanga flewMine will be a beautiful serviceNotes