February Rain (collection of poems of Amadeo Mendoza)

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I enrolled in the online poetry class of Amadeo Mendoza which consists of 6 sessions, and he promoted the maiden collection of his poems called February Rain published by Balangay Publications which can be accessed via Lazada. Let me guess why he had this title aside from the fact that page 5 houses a poem with such a title. The month of February is love while rain stand for tears. The book is filled with his life's poetry and philosophical ruminations on life, love, art, and politics as well as story-telling. Sir Deo promoted his class and book because the proceeds will help him finance his sister who has medical needs.    

I had been a member of a poetry group when I was in college and it was a good experience but what I ended up doing is to do my own thing. It appears that I could not finish a poem if I follow what's expected of a good poem or I kept someone editing my work. Well, that became a double-edged sword. It served me well enough to fearlessly publish my own collection of poems in 2018. But upon reading the collection of Sir Deo, I realized I missed a lot of things. I enjoyed his sestina, his all caps, small letters, his prose, his flash fiction. This only means that it is time to experiment too in my poems. Time to revise, revise, and revise too.

I was happy to meet published poets in my online class too. I was lucky to meet Sir Deo in Manila when I happened to be there and two other masterclass fellows. I had an opportunity to have my picture taken with him and his book. Sir Deo's book of poems was made available at the recently held Manila International Book Festival.

One of the poems I liked from Sir Deo's February Rain. I will make a separate post on it. 

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