Foot and Fire

    I received through this birthday project fundraiser an awesome list of things I should be thankful about. My birthday has been memorable and cause-worthy because of the many who believe in what Art can do to help, to uplift, to share, to multiply… To everyone who sent their financial support to the project, to everyone who wished me and this project well, to everyone who pledged to send in their support, to everyone who loves art, I share to you my celebration of my life this year. Here the unexpected things I learned in this undertaking I tied up with my birthday this year: I get to say hi to old friends and acquaintances which I cannot normally do because of my daily routine and get to engage current friends to worthy projects. *** I get to see some siblings and old folks of my classmates who are nearby or abroad because they get to be tasked to bring payment and/or pick up the book. *** I get to disturb, distract, awaken, everyo...

  My journey with Specks Fundraiser had been wonderful because of your overwhelming love. In return, I am pledging my time and efforts and good judgment to see to it that our four projects will be implemented and be sustainable as much as possible. It will be a commitment I am forging with you this year on my birthday. Here are the updates as of December 2018.     There fund already raised plus the pledges to collect met the target amount to spend for each of the project.  Yahoo, thanks to you!!! I love you. ***   The design is already in place but I am still scouting for the right and best public location. In the meantime, the books I bought from the Big Bad Wolf booksale is now up for free reading. Book tasting will be held from time to time. I'm excited! ***   One good friend pledged to buy Laptop for the Panay Bukidnon and it was a heartwarming gesture I still wait before getting the tribe its new recording device. *** ...

My sister repeatedly tells me that she liked my first booklet, Framed Words, because it contains essays aside from poems for the reason that not everyone can appreciate poems but can surely follow an essay. So, here is my tip for everyone to enjoy a poem or two in the collection, Specks. A poem is a telling of a story in as little words as possible. Let's take  Mother eagle's Lullaby (Inspired by a visit at the Philippine Eagle Center, Davao City) in page 29 of Specks. I loved the idea that our Philippine Eagles are monogamous and take care of their hatchling together. This made me read more about them. What resulted is a creative storytelling of the reproductive habits of Philippine eagles, meaning, all information in the poem is based on my research on Philippine eagles' mating habit and how they take care of their birdlings. From the voice of a mother eagle and in the first few lines, what is being established is the pregnancy of the mother eagle: "You were i...

Writing Home: 19 Writers Remember Thier Hometowns Edited by Ruel S. De Vera Anvil Publishing 191 pages, An anthology of essays, poems and short stories As of writing this review, I am yet to finish four more entries: The Bacon vendetta by Eileen R. Tabios (Santo Tomas, Candon, Ilocos Sur), The Adopted Hometown by Alfred Yuson (Dumaguete), Habit of Space by Karina Africa Bolasco (Lipa) and Outward Journey by Jaime An Lim (Cagayan De Oro). Just immediately before I sat down to write this review, I read one which is closer to home: EBJ Freedom Park by Alex de los Santos (Antique) which is a poem that remembers how the park came to be when "we heard the volley of gunfire that made this park a tomb. " EBJ stands for Evelio B. Javier who was a much-beloved Antique Assemblyman and governor who was assassinated in 1986. In the poem's opening lines, the park for Antiquenos is "here is where we rise, here we bury victories." And as closing lines, the...

As a continuation to the entry on Jose Villa posted earlier in PART ONE, here is his two more poems. Jose Villa's two other poems "Inviting a Tiger for the weekend" and "I was speaking of oranges to a lady" are entertaining and light read despite the fact that I still have to point out that they do not reflect anything about or specifically Filipino. I still liked the  Jose Rizal entry  which I blogged about earlier. Inviting a Tiger for a Weekend Jose Garcia Villa Inviting a tiger for a weekend. The gesture is not heroics but discipline. The memories will be splendid. Proceed to dazzlement, Augustine. Banish little birds, graduate to tiger. Proceed to dazzlement, Augustine. Any tiger of whatever colour the same as jewels any stone Flames always assential morn. The guest is luminous, peer of Blake. The ghost is gallant, eye of Death. If you will do this you will break. The little religious for my sake. Invite a tiger for a weeken...

Another Jose is included in the anthology. Jose Garcia Villa... His poems reflect that he is an immigrant, he used strawberries, girafffes, larks, tiger, oranges as his literary device when we have mangoes, calamansi, tamaraw, carabao, maya in the Philippines... My quick thought is that this only means that being a Filipino and being somewhere is already a definition of a Filipino... So sad he is ironically the only one listed under the title: Filipinos writing in English when I noted that there are at least three Indonesian poets under Indonesian. He is under the 20th century entry. The editors should dig more Filipino poets and add ones that write of Filipino culture or traditions.  *** But this does not mean that the poem posted did not mean anything to me. Actually, poems should also have universal voice, so I must give it to Villa that in his poem, Now I Prize Yellow Strawberrie s, where he effectively trumpeted the belief in one's intellectual capacity, wheth...

This 1338-page book is a gift from the court interpreter who will be retiring soon. He loves novels and will be donating his fictions to my local school. I already spotted this heavyweight last time and I mentioned to him that he gift it to me because I personally "eye" it. Fellow bookworms bond... *** Quickly, I skimmed the book and the quick index. Of course, I am interested what were the entries for the Filipinos... So far, I found Jose Rizal under the tagline Filipino-Spanish and Jose Garcia Villa under Filipino writing in English. What were my instant thoughts? Why was Jose Rizal not placed as Filipino when the others were under Chinese, Malay etc. I shall write of my thoughts on Villa separately. *** *** *** WATER AND FIRE Jose Rizal...... Water are we, you say, and yourselves fire;  so let us be what we are and co-exist without ire, and may no conflagration ever find us at war.  But, rather, fused together by cunning scienc...