The Experiment of the Tropics: Poems

Named 1 of 6 must-read poetry books in April 2019 by The Millions.

The co-winner of the inaugural Gaudy Boy Poetry Book Prize.

Through the lens of history and photography, The Experiment of the Tropics returns to early-twentieth-century Philippines during American colonialism and asks, “How does one look at the past?”

By braiding the music of anthropology with the intimacy of the lyric, Lawrence Ypil explores history’s archives and excavates a city, both real and imagined, that is constituted by the shimmer of petal and porch, coral and brass—a river-refrigerator where women catch their reflections on the sheen of magazines and men lean against the walls of old houses and beckon, come here. So, we approach.

Spare, musical, and erotic, The Experiment of the Tropics is a meditation on the nature of a city and its longing, the revelatory power of photography, and the startling capacity of poetry to cut into the violent but redemptive parts of history.