“A beautiful, moving example of the poetry of place.” Winner of the 2020 Gintong Aklat Award for Poetry “If culture is a form of survival, then Merina not only enriches Philippine poetry but also enables Ivatan culture to thrive in a language that his tillage has made hospitable.” –John B. Labella “Among our best poetsContinue reading “Di Achichùk: Poems and Images from Batanes”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
For My Cousins Who Will Choose Who They Are
FOR MY COUSINS WHO WILL CHOOSE WHO THEY ARE running home this evening I look for the san gabriels to find only a faint line above the haze a razor-black definition of home running and, before I can help it, my mind rushes in fills the rest with detail and reference so that I seeContinue reading “For My Cousins Who Will Choose Who They Are”
The Change Giver
THE CHANGE GIVER The Change-giver drops four pisos into my hand swivels hips sideways calls out the next stop Ortigaaaaaaaaaaaaaas one hand worrying the frayed edge of a trouser pocket switching back and forth coin against the railing one click means stop two clicks go sige dire-diretso hangang sa dulo The Change-giver paces the smallContinue reading “The Change Giver”
Stone of the Fish
STONE OF THE FISH Sometimes on the slip of your tongue or the well of the kutsara or maybe on the ridge of the dry gin glass you will find it: the bone of the fish They say you should be thankful for its abnormal shape and irregular curves for it came to you fromContinue reading “Stone of the Fish”
Migrations
Collaboration with visual artist Alyssa Sherwood, commissioned by the City of Pasadena. Read the entire poem here at the Poetry Foundation.
Exile
EXILE They were exiled for half a century from the island the ocean became a deep and treacherous border cut into the land. The punishment imposed by Spanish officials a consequence for insurrection certain as the fine embroidery on the priest’s frock ironed hot and flat for mass. Even so some were driven back byContinue reading “Exile”
A Deadly Quake Tests Batanes’ Tradition Of Resiliency
I WAS ON OUR FARM when the ground began to shake beneath me. I raised my arms to steady myself against the motion. From the rise, the forested hills seemed to sway around me. The narrow cement path I stood on was littered with brush I had just cleared. I was putting in a new irrigationContinue reading “A Deadly Quake Tests Batanes’ Tradition Of Resiliency”
Death is a Night Wind: How José Rizal’s immortal poem haunts the Philippines today
The Caravan Magazine, June 2018 | IN THE DAYS BEFORE HIS EXECUTION, a 35-year-old Filipino named José Rizal leaned over a wooden desk and wrote 14 stanzas in neat Castilian handwriting on a paper about the size of his palm. He folded the paper twice and tucked it inside a gas lamp. On his sisterContinue reading “Death is a Night Wind: How José Rizal’s immortal poem haunts the Philippines today”
Indonesians on Obama’s ascendancy from Menteng to the White House
YOGYAKARTA, INDONESIA – As he delivered his historic acceptance speech in a Chicago park, Barack Obama paused at one point to speak directly to the world community. “And all those watching tonight from beyond our shores,” he said. “To those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world: our stories are singular,Continue reading “Indonesians on Obama’s ascendancy from Menteng to the White House”
Filipino farmworkers’ 1965 strike a pivotal moment in California
In the new film, “Cesar Chavez,” there’s a scene where a group of Filipino farmworkers are attacked in a labor camp in Delano. It’s a brief scene, but a pivotal moment in the United Farm Workers’ movement. It was September 1965 and tensions were rising in the region between established growers and a migrant workforce.Continue reading “Filipino farmworkers’ 1965 strike a pivotal moment in California”
Dorian Merina 