Ranging over a diverse array of subjects, whether it is Christ as a Jewish retiree in Miami, the frog prince, a suicide bomber, or Hamlet s famous soliloquy, Tattered Boat exemplifies Luis H. Francia's quest for the lyrical line that fulfills the impulse towards non-narrative meaning. These are poems rife with double entendres, contradictions, and playful ironies. As Danton Remoto puts it, Like Wang Wei in his middle passage, the poet traces in the air the smoke rings of journeys and destinations, deaths, and rebirths. Per Krip Yuson, the collection represents the inquisition of a planet fraught with false gods. The book expands on similar themes explored in Museum of Absences (co-published by Meritage Press and the University of the Philippines Press). Of those works, Nick Carbo writes that Francia s themes of love, loss, and redemption weave through the collection with the expert hand of a Stephane Mallarmé or a Federico Fellini. His last publication, The Beauty of Ghosts, portrayed the Filipino immigrant experience in the voices of individual sojourners to these shores, from an overworked nurse in Queens to a teenaged rapper.