Hidden Codex: Fictive Scriptures
Publisher: University of Santo Tomas Publishing House
Published: 2014
Place of publication: Manila, Philippines
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 110
Description: Hidden Codex: Fictive Scriptures is a series of poems — narrative, lyric, prose, and combinations — that re-imagine biblical themes and characters. As its back cover blurb says, the collection follows a kind of storyline — “Biblical characters as literary characters: Adam inventing the names of things (in what may be the biblical origin of words); Eve contemplating the Fall; ‘wise men from the East’ in journey and dialogue, with a young Balthassar asking the questions; a questioning, tormented Judas and an innocent, young John in conversation; ... Thomas in sorrowful contemplation of wounds …. Across the varied, variegated moments, a series of poems — narrative, lyric, prose, and combinations — follows a thin, elementary thread from character to character, from fiction to fiction. In the end, one who was at the beginning has changed his path and finds simplicity and innocence.”
Table of contents: label: Part I  FROM THE BOOK OF PROVENANCE; title: 1
label: Lexicon ex Genesis; title: 3
label: Naked; title: 4
label: Eve’s Lament; title: 6
label: Continuance; title: 7
label: Young David’s Early Psalms; title: 10
label: Valley of Stones; label: Part II  FROM THE BOOK OF BALTHASSAR; title: 15
label: First Epiphany: Desert Myrrh; title: 18
label: The Alchemy of Time; title: 20
label: My Gentle Magus; title: 22
label: Epistles to Babylon: The Gravity of Myrrh; title: 24
label: A Whispered Warning from One Winged; label: Part III  THE DISCOVERED SCROLLS OF MAGDALA; label: Three Temptations of Mary; title: 29
label: The Temptation of Memory; title: 31
label: The Temptation of Longing; title: 33
label: The Temptation of Woman; title: 37
label: The Kiss Metaphor; title: 39
label: The Unforgiven; title: 42
label: Demon of Doubt; title: 45
label: The Wretched of the Earth; title: 48
label: Fifth Temptation: By the Demon of Wrath; title: 52
label: Epilogue: At Ephesus; label: Part IV  PAPYRI & PARCHMENTS; title: 59
label: The Man Carrying a Jar; title: 61
label: Passover Days; title: 68
label: Ex-Centurion’s Diarium; label: Part V  FROM THE BOOK OF THE SKULL; title: 73
label: Death in the Afternoon; title: 74
label: Second Prophecy of Caiaphas; title: 76
label: Lazarus on the Verge of Forgetting; title: 78
label: The Contemplations of Thomas: Found Fragments; title: 81
label: Weep, Simon the Rock; title: 83
label: I, Pontius; title: 92
label: The Last Days and Dreams of J. Iscariot; label: Part VI  FROM THE BOOK OF BALTHASSAR; title: 103
label: Dunes; title: 105
label: Fields; title: 106
label: Epistle to Babylon: Angel’s Breath; title: 107
label: Second Epiphany: The Elixir