Kirjahaku

A poetry collection which runs the gamut of the human experience, leaving the reader breathless with incandescent verses that ennoble the spirit. It weaves a tapestry of a beautiful Spanish landscape inhabited by heroic figures standing tall despite the weight of an imperfect world, adeptly incorporating love as a metaphorical trope to deliver lustrous historical, philosophical and theological insights into the human psyche.

Prize-winning poet Gilbert Luis R. Centina III plumbs the depths of human despair and celebrates the triumph of the human spirit through this bilingual poetry collection. He uses the mosaic of cultures he has experienced in the rainforests of Peru, the sweltering tropical heat of the Philippines, the frenetic pace of Spanish Harlem in New York, and the Old World milieu of Spain as a backdrop in painting a panoramic view of humanity's inner struggle with life itself. What emerges is an affirmation that in the end, victory belongs to those who love and hope and remain steadfast in their faith in the goodness of humankind.

Recovecos/Crevices is the final work of notable Catholic poet Gilbert Luis R. Centina III, an Augustinian religious missionary who died from Covid-19 in Le n, Spain in May 2020. In his preface to this book, completed barely two weeks prior to his death, he sensed the danger surrounding him at his friary and wrote poignantly about his experience during the pandemic that would claim his life.

When Jos Mor n entered the monastery, it was to pursue the highest form of chivalry. But his fate as a religious priest takes a precipitous turn when social paroxysm grips the island-nation of Islas e Islotes after the downfall of the government. To cover up his own misdeeds, his abominably corrupt religious superior leading a double life seizes the ensuing chaos and collaborates with human rights violators in the military to accuse the completely innocent friar of a fabricated heinous crime. The plot unravels as those who claim to follow Christ wade into politics, taking for granted his injunction to "render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's." In this novel, cassocked hypocrites are unmasked and only the weak are spared.