This study stylistically analyzes the semantic deviations in “Poem 130” by Jose Garcia Villa, a Philippine national artist for literature. Aside from the eccentric commas, his comma poem contains semantic deviations. Qualitative data were gathered to determine the functions of the semantic deviations found in the said poem. Findings revealed that the poem’s semantic deviations focus on images which, at the outset, seem nonsense or absurd, but would lead to the realization of the aptness of these semantic deviations for finding meanings in the poem. Using Leech’s (2008) stylistic analysis of semantic deviations, it was found that these deviations manifest an excellent metaphorical sense, which is another feature of the poem aside from its eccentric use of commas.
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