Poetry Book Society Poetry Book
Recommendation
‘Filled with heart and beauty’ and Cecile Pin Pin
‘Ante is an alchemical wonder of a poet: unparalleled in her image-making, raw to both historical and contemporary damage and rich in cultures. Utterly original, AGIMAT is itself a talisman – a fiery binding of pain and a message of love to the wounded and lost. Keep these poems with you as I will – always’
Fiona Benson
‘If translation is always physical, often joyous work – the act of carrying meaning across the chasms separating languages –then AGIMAT is about the daily embodied acts involved in this labour. To live in translation is to be estranged. Yet the joy of translation comes from this very estrangement. Romalyn Ante makes us feel this, as estrangement transforms into its own vibrant space of joy. Ante’s irrepressible inquiries into translation create a colourful linguistic sanctuary’
Jason Allen-Paisant
‘Romalyn Ante’s mesmeric new collection is deeply rooted in the dualities of life, cultural identity, and the profound interplay of personal and communal experience. Vivid, lyrical, and always surprising, it is a testament to those who navigate the complex legacies of history toward healing and resilience. It is both a balm and a call to action, reminding us of the transformative power of bearing witness’
Nathan Filer
‘Romalyn Ante’s first collection introduced us to a voice both vibrant and thoughtful. This collection grows out from this – now coming with a feeling of added power and forcefulness. This is a special book – both urgent and beautiful’
Niall Campbell
‘With precision, deftness, and at times playfulness, AGIMAT weaves in mythical and modern imageries, the universal with the intimate. The result is a powerful and hopeful collection, filled with heart and beauty, that illuminates us to the many forms that caring and healing can take’ Cecile Pin
ALSO BY ROMALYN ANTE
Antiemetic for Homesickness
AGIMAT Romalyn Ante
Chatto & Windus
london
Chatto & Windus, an imprint of Vintage, is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com
First published in the UK by Chatto & Windus in 2024
Copyright © Romalyn Ante 2024
Romalyn Ante has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this Work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 penguin.co.uk/vintage
Typeset in 11/14pt Minion Pro by Jouve (UK), Milton Keynes
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, Elcograf S.p.A.
The authorised representative in the EEA is Penguin Random House Ireland, Morrison Chambers, 32 Nassau Street, Dublin D 02 YH 68
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 9781784745776
Penguin Random House is committed to a sustainable future for our business, our readers and our planet. This book is made from Forest Stewardship Council® certified paper.
To my comrades in healthcare, and to my ‘children’.
For Suriya, as always.
Remembering is the best revenge.
Maria Rosa Henson
Ako ang babaeng hindi matatakot sa putok ng baril bala’y ganga niog.
Ako’y natamaan sa aking tugatog pinispis ko lama’t akala ko’y lamok.
Batangas folksong, E. Malabanan, 1916
I am a woman who is not afraid of gunshots, bullets as big as coconuts. Once, I was hit at the back of my head I swept it away, thinking it was a mosquito.
[Evening walk, Wednesfield]
I navigate this light-pricked town; my shadow skims on pavements –rain-embossed leaves, fox-eyed alleyways.
I reach the tunnel of tulle-purple fog and my thoughts flicker like the canal waters.
As the hour deepens, I wonder how far this heart can listen.
Mebuyan and Me
there is a season that mimics sucklings a gust of laughter through the grating pendulum of park swings there is a weight to longing a melody a woman hums her torso a towering bole bronzed and swollen with burls of breasts
nipples stout as pimpled bark call a soul to crawl and suck
Mebuyan
isn’t that her name the goddess who rode in a giant rice mortar spinning through the underworld
she lulls the children from womb to tomb nightjars croon from the hollow of her navel as the moon lactates gloom-sweet sap to salve every wound cool the sting of snakebites in the ankle or behind the knee
