Primates from an Archipelago: Poems

In this cinematic collection of poetry, Irene Suico Soriano unravels threads of silence and oppression. Primates from an Archipelago traces lineages on geographic and personal islands where memories and dreams are synonymous. Balanced with official documentation such as passports, birth and death certificates, and membership cards, the poems also speak the languages of uncertainties and multiple truths. The collection travels from homeland exile and loss in the Philippines, to the author’s origin story in Zamboanga, on to sites where experience and education have shaped her world view, and finally to Los Angeles, the city of settlement and fractured pasts. Mythical and intimate, Primates from an Archipelago illustrates the sad beauty that lies in the gaps.