Silent Poems: A Tribute to One of My Heroes-Jose Garcia Villa

Recently, I went back to my college literary pieces and I flipped through Jose Garcia Villa's "silent poems". These poems technically lack lyrics and are full of imagery. The only thing is, there are no words to read. Usually, it's only the title to be seen and a few or no punctuation marks are present. I am not aware if he has written more of these poems since I've only come across two. My favorite is "The Bashful One" (wow, as if I've read a million hehe). The other one is "The Emperor's New Sonnet. 

In "The Bashful One", the reader is somewhat forced into thinking what imagery has to do with the kind of poetry the author is establishing. The reader will then be required to check (if ever he does not know what bashful means) the dictionary. He will soon find out that bashful means 'shy'. Thus (if he is a fan of poetry), he will realize the speaker is too 'shy' to express feelings-therefore, no words were able to come out.

As for "The Emperor's New Sonnet", the reader will have to look back into classical fairy tales. Almost every child knows of the famous Emperor who fooled himself, making himself believe he had clothes on. In relation to JGV's silent poem, the reader should have the idea that the poem is a reflection of the Emperor's foolishness. "The Emperor's New Sonnet" in a way, "fooled" the speaker.

To follow up on this topic, here are my college days silent poems...

I hope you enjoy them.

>>Dilean Bass