.

EVOCARE: Tankas, with Ayo Gutierrez and Brian Cain Aene
Publisher: GMGA ENTERTAINMENT PRODUCTIONS (GMGA, Philippines)
ISBN: 9781089016052
Release Date: 2019
Pages: 141
Price: Paperback $8.00; Kindle $2.99
Distributor:  Amazon Paperback, Amazon Kindle

BOOK TRAILER (YouTube)

EVOCARE presents Eileen R. Tabios’ Collected Tankas written from 1918-1919.

Advance Words:
While these poems are written in English for a Japanese form, I hear the presence of a Filipino sensibility. I hear desire, a longing for union with a beloved. I hear mourning for a coming disappearance. I hear resilience and persistence against the tyranny of false promises. These evocations remind me that Filipino poets carry seeds of Memory waiting to be remembered despite the language and form introduced through colonialism and diaspora.
—Leny M. Strobel, author of Babaylan: Filipinos and the Call of the Indigenous

Andrea E. Lodge’s introductory essay has been reprinted by The Halo Halo Review, November 2019.

Arienne L. Calingo’s Foreword has been reprinted by The Halo Halo Review, April 2020.

A Selection of Eileen R. Tabios’ Tankas are also available in her chapbook, TANKA, Vol. I (Simulacrum Press, Ontario, 2018).

Neil Leadbeater’s review in The Halo Halo Review, 2020, includes the following comment: “Tabios’s ability to speak out on contemporary issues using this traditional form of poetry is one of her strong points. Her endless quest for invention is behind everything that she writes.”

Better View of the Moon Review: Missouri Poet Laureate Karen Craigo reviews six of the tankas in Evocare which were previously published in mini book versions.

Three tankas were feature for April 2020, National Poetry Month, by MiGoZine: “Spaghetti,” “Pelmeni Tanka,” and “They Purr, And They Watch.” “Pelmeni Tanka” was also turned into an e-broadside:

Uruguay-based poet Claude Nguyen offers “visual translations” of “Tanka #152”: