Foot and Fire

The Medical and Legal Mission I envisioned in 2018 may not have pushed through but it went a long way. I already mentioned in my blog on the conclusion of the birthday project that the fund will help me publish my new book for another set of causes.   And it proved that it was a lucky streak! I was able to raise funds for my new project and was able to return the Specks Fund for the mission. It appears that there's no chance for that kind of project to benefit my batchmates in highschool, our 25th year, so I converted the cause to gift giving of food packs. 

How to peel and eat a poem in Specks: Fly Unrequited. Unwelcome. Intruder.  Have you experienced having an unwelcome admirer or rejecting an unwelcome love or been visited by an intruder in your life? That person becomes a fly that entered your home. The Speaker in the poem "Fly" on page 19 of Specks figures out how he/she should react in these situations despite the suggestion of hurting back the intruder, shaming the unwelcome attention, or highlighting the unrequited love. I believe, this poem should be read twice before it can be appreciated because the reader can figure out that the poem is not about flies but about love and unwelcome love only after going through the last paragraph. The Speaker was advised to hurt the Fly which stands for the unwelcome giver of love or person in one's life. The Speaker does not want to hurt the person (the fly) because he/she can also choose to merely close the communication between them. I should swat the fly at once, he said...

How to peel and eat a poem in Specks: My darling Darjeeling (An ode to the harvest of tea varieties) Are you a tea-lover? Let us have here a little introduction to teas through reading a poem. This poem is inspired by my curiosity about teas. Darjeeling is a place in India where teas are cultivated and the picked teas from there are named after that. The poem My darling Darjeeling (An ode to the harvest of tea varieties) on page 47 of Specks appears to be a wooing poem but then it actually explains the times when the tea leaves are harvested and each time gives teas a different texture in taste and aroma. The Speaker asks for apology for not giving the tea the special attention it deserves considering that Darjeeling teas are special picks in India. I was wrong. Accept my apology, my Camellia Senensis, for treating you like you are nothing special. When we were in India, you are Darjeeling, my no ordinary darling. Sounding like meeting a young girl, the Speaker recall...

How to peel and eat a poem in Specks:  Dermatographia In this poem I liken a heartache from a lost love to a medical condition called Dermatographia or skin + writing. It is something not serious because the marks on the skin when scratched usually disappear after a few minutes. In page 9 of Specks, the speaker tries to talk about Dermatographia while also seamlessly talks about the longings of her heart too, and the fact that she has to move on from the pain she felt from a broken heart. Let us dissect the poem: The Speaker must have moved on because she wants to remember the intimate love she once had by talking about her skinwriting. Love, I want to remember the pressure of your fingers on my shoulder as you trail my arm down to my hand. I want to feel now how your fingernails successfully created red lines raised above my skin surface. I want to see now your love letters etched on every space of my arm. The Speaker wants to remember because like skinwriting, h...

How to peel and eat a poem:  A whale shark's tale (Dedicated to humans and Oslob's whale sharks) This is not your ordinary love story. While the storytelling in the poem is creative, the facts are all based on research regarding the ecosystem and nothing is made up for the sake to fit the intention of the poem. Thus, it is true that Whale Sharks are not like the usual fierce shark, it is true that they are huge, it is also true that they do eat the algal blooms causing red tide and it is true that shrimps are not their main food. If humans keep feeding them because of tourism, the young whale sharks will never learn how to look for places where algal blooms abound and red tide will most likely occur since it will only rely on the shrimps being fed to them everyday, while the old ones will get full with the ready catch and will no longer hunt for their main food. In short, the chain of the ecosystem will get broken. The human-admirer is the one to suffer in the end, and a...

How to peel and eat a poem in Specks:  A love poem for Hambil Have you quietly fell in love with a place? I did with Hambil, Carabao Island's old name and it is located in San Jose, Romblon. On page 70 of Specks, I wrote a love poem for Hambil.  It is a kind of love not based on man-made excitements of tumbles and rides. It is something absorbed by the soul from a quaint and laidback white sand island which made an alluring call for me to go back as soon as I left it. I made this poem to celebrate the sensuous experience of the place. In the first paragraph, the body here represents the oceans, and the waves can be heard. The sound of your body gently whipped by the wind was a poem of love read right next to my ear. The white arms are the stretch of white sand  placed around my body while I lay down over it. The finest feel of your white arms stretched around my body as I rolled over you many times was cotton-feel heaven on earth. The blue eyes are the ...

This is not your ordinary love story. While the storytelling in the poem is creative, the facts are all based on research regarding the ecosystem and nothing is made up for the sake to fit the intention of the poem. Thus, it is true that Whale Sharks are not like the usual fierce shark, it is true that they are huge, it is also true that they do eat the algal blooms causing red tide and it is true that shrimps are not their main food. If humans keep feeding them because of tourism, the young whale sharks will never learn how to look for places where algal blooms abound and red tide will most likely occur since it will only rely on the shrimps being fed to them everyday, while the old ones will get full with the ready catch and will no longer hunt for their main food. In short, the chain of the ecosystem will get broken. The human-admirer is the one to suffer in the end, and all of this was realized by the enamored Whale Shark in the poem. Indeed, this is not your ordinary love st...

Last 24 March 2017, I released a collection of poems called The Watch to mark the 1st death anniversary of my father. I thought it would be all. I was wrong. He visited me in my dream on the morning of his cremation a year ago. I have to compose something about it. Here it is: Freeing  (Good Morning Tay, 3/30/2017) Today, a year ago, your body left us. I remembered because you woke me up after your short visit in my sleep. I was reminded: You left as a free man, free from all kinds of pain and free from the burden of worrying all reserved for the living. Your body left to become dust in that chamber after your spirit just flew away with the air. And now that you are dust; you will just be around. Unimposing, but there. Thank you for reminding me today that you are a free man from this worldly affairs of existing, of living. Thank you for reminding me today That I am a free woman.