Appreciation

In Jose Garcia Villa’s “Song of Ripeness,” also titled “The Coconut Poem,” the persona adores a woman’s body he sees its parts in something else. He sees them as Mother Nature’s gifts. Vigorously and more likely, he sees them as such because they are the woman’s—to him perhaps there is nothing like the female body revealed in these elements of Mother Nature.

The coconuts have ripened.

They are like nipples to the tree.

(A woman has only two nipples.

There are many women-lives in a coconut tree.)

By saying so, the persona implies he has the urge he cannot deny. He wants to make love to these elements of Nature because they are of the woman. He hungers to fill and be filled by a woman. Whether or not he dreads boredom in the future, he hopes to see the woman’s nipples heavy and full. He respects this mere nature and hopes to do something with it very beautifully.

Soon the coconuts will grow heavy and full.

I shall pick up one…many...

Like a child I shall suck their milk.

He feels excited by what he desires to do, and how he shall do so. He awaits it with much anticipation. This is the time when he and the woman will fill each other; the time when they will perhaps satisfy each other. The poem’s last lines highlight the polygamous nature of man—a man’s possible involvement with many women.The persona sees many coconuts, and he intends to suck them all. When he consciously wants to be part of every coconut, he subconsciously wants to be involved with many women.

I shall suck out of coconuts little white songs:

I shall be reminded of many women.

The persona wants to kiss the coconut because it is the nipple of a woman. He speaks of the male sensibility which always has the eyes that see (or rather constantly looks for) the female parts. On the part of this banal, male character, to appreciate these parts is properly to be.

I shall kiss a coconut because

it is the nipple of a woman.