A LITERATURE alumna launched her debut poetry collection exploring grief, domestic life and young adulthood on July 12 at Good Intentions Books in Makati.
Written by Patricia Mariya “Trish” Shishikura, “the end comes on without a gasp” comprises 49 poems produced over a decade that reflect on processing loss and the burdens people carry throughout their lives.
“The book is about grief and how to handle grief, how I’ve handled grief throughout the years,” she told the Varsitarian.
“It’s not just mine, it’s also the stories of people I’ve met along the way. There’s a lot of growth from the old poems to the new, and I wanted to weave them together,” Shishikura added.
Guest performers brought several poems from the collection to life through readings during the launch.
Thomasian poets and creative writing alumni were among the performers. Ryam Ram Malli read “Connotations,” while creative writing professor Nerisa Guevara performed “The Tale of Raijin,” a poem about coming to terms with the abrupt and unforeseen nature of endings.
“Poetry is powerful because it has the capacity to move people, even when the meaning isn’t so blatant,” Shishikura said.
Shishikura won first prize in the poetry category of the 27th Gawad Ustetika in 2011 and a Carlos Palanca Memorial Award for Literature in 2023. In UST, she was vice president of the Thomasian Writers Guild.
“the end comes on without a gasp” was published by the Ateneo de Manila University Press in collaboration with Good Intentions Books. P. D. Reyes
