A POEM FOR MY MOTHER

It's so difficult to write for/about my mother. But I did manage the poem "The Peony Named Beatrice" (my mother's name was the derivation "Beatriz") and I'm grateful it recently found publication in Entanglements2: A Curated Collection of Contemporary Culture, Curator Annette Wylde (PreNeo Press / Hunger Button Books, 2023). Here's my poem and other images from this gorgeous book that explores “Biophilia,” defined as biologist Edward O. Wilson as the “emotional affiliation of human beings to other living organisms” into our cultural consciousness and conversations:

MONSTER HIGH'S INVITATION TO POETRY

Philippine Bookshelf--through @yugto.bookclub on Instagram--is featuring my poem "Epiphany at Monster High" as part of their February Invitations to Poetry. I'll post poem in its entirety below because I don't know how to share it from Instagram to Blogger :)

Epiphany at Monster High

I realize

I like to rescue
Dolls

discarded by children
who grow old by forgetting 
Love

I dust them, shampoo
their plastic hair
(now a collection of split-ends)
and bathe their bodies
(many scarred by animal teeth)

When I rescue dolls
I revive their ghosts
who now bring me 

their language of longings

(fresh fodder to translate

for making new poems)—
I reciprocate

I clean their clothes
or give them new apparel

For one treasured skirt

I apply my inheritance

of Mom’s needle and thread

Most need new shoes

The ghosts cease crying
and masticating hapless tongues 
behind scarred stiff cheeks 

After sponge baths, smiles surface
from erased grit—most dolls 

are made with upturned lips

for they rationalize their existence

as conduits for joy, for Grace

I discover I like to rescue dolls
to rediscover 

how I love to rescue Love

DOVELION ON "DIVERSE TV" EUROPE!

 "Writings on the Wall" Europe at DiverseTV

Alexandro Botelho reads an excerpt from "The Return of DoveLion," the primary poem featured in DOVELION: A Fairy Tale for Our Times (AC Books, New York, 2021), for "LIVE: Writings on the Wall Europe" (the poem is read at about 40:30).

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"CHAOS PAMPLONA" IN YOUNTVILLE ART WALK!

The lovely town of Yountville had its Art Walk today and I was able to see my poem in the company of the sculpture that inspired it. Said sculpture was made by Jedd Novatt, and my poem shares its title with his sculpture: “Chaos Pamplona.” The ekphrastic poem project of poets writing “after” one of the sculptures dotting Yountville’s landscape is the brain child of Napa Valley Poet Laureate Marianne Lyon, and I’m grateful Marianne asked me to participate. Here are some photos and it was a lovely day for taking them! I also share another ekphrastic example of a Macaw sculpture  and the poem it inspired from Cathy Carsell. 

(Click on images to enlarge)

FIRST 2021 POEM

is also an exercise in poeticizing autofiction. Autofiction is much on my mind because of forthcoming novel DOVELION (AC Books, New York, March-April 2021). Anyway, here's my first poem at Moss Trill:

"HOPE: First 2021 Poem"

I dedicate it to those who, as the poem cites, "still believe in ethics."

PA-LIWANAG: TO THE LIGHT (FILIPINAS IN TRANSLATION)!

I just received a copy of a new anthology featuring my works. It's a project that shows indie publishing at its best--you can see by the first 2 pages of its Introduction that I share, and from which I share this powerful excerpt below. PA-LIWANAG is published by the Philippines' Gantala Press and picked up for further publishing support by the U.K.'s Tilted Axis Press. I share my 2 poems ("Scumble-d" and "The First Face Transplant") since I shouldn't share others without their permission--though I will note that I am blessed to discover new poems and poets (I adore "Puki" by Elizabeth Ruth Deyro, a poet from the province of Laguna). Gantala asks:

"When a government wages war against its people -- surely a woman's press can and should do more than just publish books?"

Thus Gantala publishes "the works of women farmers, plantation workers, nurses and migrant workers, and regularly contributes to fundraising efforts in support of factory workers on strike as well as urban poor communities." This book is one of them and I'm honored to be in their company.

READ WATER

Delighted to receive my contributor's copy of an intriguing and timely anthology, READ WATER edited by Hari Alluri, Garrett Bryant and Amanda Fuller. I'm grateful, not just for their inclusions of my 2 poems "The Great Grief" and "Witnessed in the Convex Mirror: Anthropocene" but also, for their inclusion of my poetics essay that allows me to posit I became like water a la Bruce Lee. As someone who briefly studied Kali and barely avoided bruising my own shins during its own stick-fighting, I am amused to invoke the martial arts. Anyway, thanks to the poets and I recommend checking it out HERE. I include Table of Contents below -- also grateful to be in such fine company:

"ROBOT COSPLAY"--THE FRENCH VERSION!

I've never been there, but I love Brussels. Which is to say, as soon as online publishing became possible, I glommed onto that train! Recall the early days of that artificial controversy of online vs print publishing, i.e. that print publishing supposedly is better? But if one focuses on audience versus reputation, it's logical to support online venues as such significantly expands readership. So back to Brussels--today I received my contributor's copy of the Belgian literary/arts journal On peut se permettre where one of my poems, "ROBOT COSPLAY," is presented in French translation. The translator Fanny Garin found my poem online and was moved to translate.
I never would have seen my poems in different countries than the U.S. or translated in other languages without online publishing. What I also love about this process is that my poems are speaking for themselves. As their author, I'm not doing any pitching blather about how great they are--the poems are read and judged solely based on their merit before they might pique a translator's (or any reader's) interest. Merveilleux!
I present them below because, although I'm not fluent in French, I think my poem looks lovely in that dress! Merci!
And I'm also presenting them here because they are in a print journal. Quelle belle ironie!

(Click on images to expand)

BOOK 3/7 FOR MINIATURE BOOK SOCIETY

I’m a new member of the Miniature Book Society and I was nominated to post 7 books for MBS’ Facebook page. "Miniature" books are sized at 3-4 inches or less. I’ll be replicating the posts on this blog for the next 7 days.

DAY 3/7  My favorite miniature book covers

MBS

I’m sharing books—some handmade—by some of today’s contemporary poets. My third book is THE STARS LOOK VERY DIFFERENT TODAY: A DAVID BOWIE TRIBUTE put together shortly after his death. It was curated/published by Poems-for-all, arguably the leading contemporary poetry publisher in the miniature book format, with books at about 1.75” x 2”.  This video of how poet/poetry lover/ex-bookseller Robert Hansen creates his books is enchanting and recommended.  Poems-for-all has an idealistic vision for the press to distribute tiny books of poetry worldwide like Johnny Appleseed in his day; his website notes, “Little books of poetry, scattered like seeds,” and Missouri’s Poet laureate Karen Craigo says about it, “I love the comparison, since lovers of poetry know how some words can take root in us and, to continue the metaphor, bear fruit forever.” (Craigo’s comments are at a review HERE). It’s worth noting that these books aren’t sold but distributed however the authors and publisher are able; you can get free copies by simply contacting Robert through his website https://poems-for-all.com.

In addition to the Bowie cover, I post 2 interiors shots. I’m also posting the cover to the latest Poems-for-all book I just received, IN A STATION OF THE METRO just because it presents my favorite couplet in literature (most poets will never write a mere 2 lines that warrant a book!):

IN A STATION OF THE METRO

By Ezra Pound

The apparition of these faces in the crowd:

Petals on a wet, black bough.

Poems-for-all also shows how a superb use of graphics can elevate modest production values (stapled card stock), so I’m showing covers from a random sampling of their books—all vivid and pleasing to the eye! Finally, as we all like seeing books as collections, too, I end with a photo of how I shelve my Poems-for-all books: I took a desk drawer organizer, upended it on its side, and created a bookcase!

P.S. I add a photo of me reading one of their books with one of their tiny bookmarks!

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Today I nominate any new member of MBS. I love seeing all the books already shared, AND I’m also interested in the *gateway* books—those that made you discover mini books or the first books you’re collecting. Some of the books I’m posting, for example, were created before I knew that miniature books were a thing. So I nominate MBS New Member #3.

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This is a challenge for contributing to the spread of reading culture. The method of participation is to post a favorite book, one book per day, for 7 days. You upload some images with a short explanation about the book and invite one FB friend to participate in this challenge.