VIRTUAL BOOK LAUNCH FOR ENGKANTO IN THE DIASPORA

Engkanto in the Diaspora is virtually launched through a "Lit in 5!" feature in The Halo Halo Review, Winter 2025. You are invited to the Launch Conversation with Aileen Cassinetto.

SUMMER 2025 POSTCARD PROJECT

I'm looking to trade postcards. As you can see from image, I have tons ready to send out. If you'd like to send me one with a poem, hand drawn art, or ANYTHING that you would like to share, send me a postcard and I'll send you one, too. Postcards can be handmade or from what's commercially made, and can be on any theme. This project is international. The postcard can be sent (as is or in an envelope) to me at

Eileen Tabios

P.O. Box 361

Saint Helena, CA 94574

One thing to watch out for is to make sure your address is legible (message me your address just in case).

MODPO DISCUSSSES THE POEM "AS IF"

 

 ModPo's Al Filreid and Kate Colby Discuss Eileen R. Tabios's Poem "As If" on ModPo's YOUTUBE Channel. You can see/listen to their discussion at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTSVrQBfY9g

 

AS IF

There was un

momento, a

poem

 

I wrote while

driving the

car.

 

My ego would

not let

me

 

pull over to

jot it

down.

 

"If a poem

is so

powerful

 

it will return,"

I have

Boasted

 

for a long

time to

other

 

poets, as if

I possessed

Some

 

knowledge they did

not already

know.

 

It feels like

years and

yet

 

that poem has

not yet

returned.

 

What I recall

is that,

somehow,

 

it related to

perfect timing

y

 

flamenco.

 

***

"As If" is featured in my' bilingual English/Spanish book UNO DOS TRES / ONE TWO THREE: Selected Hay(na)ku Poems.

*****

Al Filreid is the Kelly Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, Faculty Director of the Kelly Writers House. More information at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Filreis

Kate Colby is an award-winning poet, essayist and author of six poetry books. More information at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Colby

REMEMBERING NICK CARBO at POETRY

 

My remembrance of pioneering poet Nick Carbó is up at the Poetry Foundation website: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/1683593/ang-tunay-na-lalaki-the-real-man-remembering-nick-carbo

I believe my essay also provides a look at a slice of poetry and Fil-Am history not known to many so hopefully it interests readers.

THE FEROCITY OF FLOWERS

As I've mentioned here, every few weeks I do a poetry column for my local newspapers. I cover something that's relevant locally, and then have the coverage help inspire a new poem (my current way of an Oulipian restraint).

This week I came out with my fifth column. It's also the first to present another poet's poem which I hope to do more in the future. For this issue, I'm grateful to Aileen Cassinetto whose hay(na)ku on the tariffs issue and roses helped inspire my own poem "The Ferocity of Flowers."

My editor, btw, once observed (thankfully) that I clearly work to make my poems of interest (& accessible?) to readers who might not pay attention otherwise to poetry. He apparently has read my other or earlier poetry which is more, cough, arduous. I am amused. Amusement is one of my favorites muses.

Because a newspaper format is not the prettiest way to present poems, I'll replicate poems below in the order they appear:

 

On Every January 20, I Consider

 

Cherry blossoms or

magnolias—to die petal

by petal or whole

 

 

In Full Bloom: How to Unpack the Love Language of Perishables as Import 

Duties Wilt the Fragile Trade  of Flowers

(By Aileen Cassinetto)

 

Tariff

cut roses,

disrupt love unseasonably

 

The Ferocity of Flowers

 

The tree’s blossoming 

is so generous

the dogwood’s flower 

clusters evoke

a pink waterfall 

as they sway down

from treetop to ground, 

a resplendence

that draws you nearer

to their company.

Of course you lower 

your face closer

to the blooms 

shimmering with dew.

You are reminded

of that pink simile: 

“pink as the lip 

of the sea-shell.” 

Then you recall “pink 

as the rose in Galatea’s 

cheek, “as English

poet Alfred Austin put it. 

And “pink as the cheeks

of sweet-and-twenty,” 

as observed by American 

novelist Temple Bailey; 

unexpectedly, the fictionist 

moves your mind to more 

American history. You recall 

how the United States

and Japan traded dogwood 

saplings and cherry blossom 

trees in a 1912-1915 flower 

exchange. Still, all but one 

of the dogwoods in Tokyo

didn’t survive the subsequent

souring of the two countries’ 

relations. But why focus now

on how the dogwoods didn’t

survive World War II? 

Focus instead on the cherry

blossom trees surviving 

to be the star attraction 

for Washington D.C.’s  

annual spring celebration, 

the National Cherry Blossom 

Festival. Despite death 

by politics, in 2012 

the United States sent 

3,000 dogwood saplings 

to Japan to commemorate 

the 100^th anniversary 

of their 1912-1915 flower 

exchange. Someone once 

observed, “Flowers are 

ferocious.” Ferociously, 

flowers insist that something

 is itself, regardless of 

contexts applied by outsiders.

Flowers insist that we realize: 

the inescapability 

of a flower’s beauty 

is an excellent definition 

of gorgeous Integrity.

NEW POEM: "COLOR THEORY"

I just published my third Poetry Column for the local paper--you can read it by enlarging mage below. It's been fruitful relying on the column to write new poems since the novel-in-progress is taking up the majority of my time. I replicate the latest poem, "Color Theory" below since the newspaper format eliminated the stanza breaks. C'est la vie--at least it's a good fight to bring poetry to a wider readership.

COLOR THEORY

 

At the park

a toddler

wipes her

hands on

her blouse,

imprinting

green and

brown stains.

 

Among the

parents watching

their kids at play,

someone says,

“Too bad her

shirt is white.”

The toddler’s

mother replies,

“Fortunately,

Bleach exists.”

 

The mother

doesn’t share 

the question

that infiltrated

her mind—

 

Why is white

associated

with purity?

When one combines

all the colors

of the universe, 

the result

is their cancellation:

the color white.

 

Soon, the park

will greet

Winter. When

snow will fall

the milk powder

will cover everything—

 

everything like trees,

houses, cars, pets,

even people, to reveal

a nature as

indiscriminate as

a wildfire, whose

color is often depicted

as red, despite how

a flame’s hottest part

is colored white.

 

HAN KANG INSPIRES MY FIRST 2025 POEM

The first poem I wrote in 2025 was one for my poetry column in the Saint Helena Star. I'm still enjoying putting poetry into mainstream publications. This poem conflates (1) a report on my local library's shelves that sell donated books to fundraisers for library activities with (2) my takeaway from reading Novel Prize winning author Han Kang's novel Greek Lessons:

ON “GREEK LESSONS” BY HAN KANG

 

To write a poem

about reading,

reach behind you

for the nearest book.

Open the book

chosen at random

(for life is as random

as an Oulipian result).

Closely read how

a newly-wed couple

sleeps with a sword

between them. Only one

will survive the morning.

But to write about

an incident 

that might have been

forgotten, is to make

the event survive

its demise. Write

“I Love You”

to make Love’s reality

transcend human mortality.

Handwrite the words

to involve your body

and make readers

of a different century

feel the heartbeat

that moved your pen.