Joseph O. Legaspi
Poet Joseph Legaspi was born and raised in the Philippines; his family immigrated to Los Angeles when he was 12. He earned a BA at Loyola Marymount University and an MFA from New York University. Legaspi’s collections of poetry include Threshold (2017), Imago (2007), which won a Global Filipino Literary Award, and the chapbook Subways (2013). His honors and awards include a poetry fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts. With Sarah Gambito, Legaspi cofounded Kundiman, a nonprofit organization that promotes and serves Asian American writers and writing. Legaspi lives and works in New York City. Source
Amphibians
Amphibians live in both.
Immigrants leave their land,
hardening in the sea.
Out of water.
In Greek, amphibian means
“on both sides of life.”
Terra and aqua. Shoreline.
In fresh water:
amphibians lay
shell-less eggs;
immigrants give birth
to Americans.
Tadpoles, polliwogs
metamorphose: gills
in early stages. On land,
amphibians develop lungs.
Immigrants develop lungs.
Through damp skin
amphibians oxygenate.
Immigrants toil
and sleep breathlessly.
Skin forms glands.
Eyes form eyelids.
Amphibians seek land; immigrants, other lands.
Their colors brighten, camouflage.
They’ve been known to fall
out of the sky.
Fully at home in the rain.
Published:
2014
Length:
Regular
Literary Movements:
Contemporary
Anthology Years:
2024
Themes:
Immigration
Nature
Science & Climate
Literary Devices:
Analogy
a figure of speech that creates a comparison by showing how two seemingly different entities are alike, along with illustrating a larger point due to their commonalities
Epistrophe
the repetition of a word or phrase at the end of successive clauses
Extended Metaphor
a metaphor that extends through several lines or even an entire poem