Pasyonasyon

My poem's on a CCP wall as part of Irma Lacorte's installation art. The collective title is Tore : Bangin :: Bahaghari. Go see.

Bulwagang Juan Luna (Main Gallery), Cultural Center of the Philippines. Exhibit runs from May 14 – June 21, 2009. Below, the exhibit notes lifted from the e-mails:

The project "PasyoNasyon" descends from lessons conceived, learned and acquired in a cultural sense from WOMAN as (MYTHICAL) HERO:BABAYE- BABAYLAN- BAGANIHAN, a major KASIBULAN project concluded last July 2008 sponsored by NCCA.

PASYONASYON is an attempt to concretize and materialize concepts and ideas that revolve around the cultural history of the Philippines as seen through oral traditions (such as pasyon, babaylan, rituals, etc.) as such traditions are carried forth by women as primary figures of these rituals.

PASYONASYON will showcase wearable art in various art forms and media. It will serve as the converging point of different art practitioners from diverse art disciplines (dance, music, visual and digital arts, performance art and literature) to come up with provocative images, sounds, performances, and choreography that will be stringed in an exhibit at the CCP Main Gallery from May 14 to June 21.

Participating artists: Aba Lluch Dalena, AJ Tolentino, AK Domingo, Alma Quinto, Amihan Jumalon, Baidy Mendoza, Brenda Fajardo, Cecil De Leon-Laya, Ceej Gomera, Chato Rivero, Christine Sioco, Claire Zapata, Con Cabrera, Cynthia Alexander, Daphne Aguilar, Dina Gadia, Edda Amonoy, Elaine Lopez-Clemente, Esther Garcia, Gigi Javier-Alfonso, Irma Lacorte, Jana Jumalon-Alano, Jane Ebarle, Jen Viola, Katrina Ann Tan, Kiri Lluch Dalena, Lia Torralba, Lita Maderazo, Lorna Fernandez, Lot Arboleda, Maan de Loyola, Maria Villanueva, Mayuko S. Kobayashi, Milk Mendoza, Mimi Tecson, Mona Dela Cruz-Gaston, Nadya Melina David, Nina Libatique, Norma Liongoren, Paz Abad Santos, Pusong Bughaw, Racquel de Loyola, Rona Fernandez, Rosel Valenzuela, Serena Borras, Susan Fetalvero-Roces, Teya Tan, Vivian N. Limpin, Zenaida Xavier.

Sunshower

Chris Cornell

Dark as roses, fine as sand
Feel your healing and your sting again
I hear you laughing and my soul is saved
On forgotten graves you cry

Crawl like ivy up my spine
Through my nerves and into my eyes
Cuts like anguish
Or recollections of better days gone by

But it's all right
When you're caught in pain
And you feel the rain come down
It's all right
When you find your way
Then you see it disappear
It's all right
Though your gardens grey
I know all your graces
Someday will flower
In the sweet sunshower

Eyes like oceans so far away
A feather trail to a better way
Worried mornings turn into days
Then into worried nights

But it's all right
When you're all in pain
And you feel the rain come down
Oh it's all right
When you find your way
Then you see it disappear
Oh it's all right
Though your gardens grey
I know all your graces
Someday will flower
Oh in the sweet sunshower
Oh in the sweet sunshower
In the sweet sunshower

I know all your graces
Someday will flower
In the sweet sunshower
And it's all right
All you'll be you are today
Are today
It's all right
All you'll be you are today
Are today...

I try to say goodbye

Macy Gray

Games, changes and fears
when will they go from here
when will they stop
I believe that faith has brought us here
and we should be together but we're not
I play it off but I'm dreaming of you
I'll keep my cool but I'm feeling

I try to say good-bye and I choke
I try to walk away and I stumble
though I try to hide it, it's clear
my world crumbles when you are not near

Good-bye and I choke
I try to walk away and I stumble
though I try to hide it,
it's clear my world crumbles when you are not near

I may appear to be free but I'm just a prisoner of your love
I may seem all right and smile when you leave
but my smiles are just a front
I play it off but I'm dreaming of you
I'll keep my cool but I'm feeling

I try to say good-bye and I choke
I try to walk away and I stumble
though I try to hide it, It's clear
my world crumbles when you are not near

Good-bye and I choke
I try to walk away and I stumble
though I try to hide it,
it's clear my world crumbles when you are not near

Here is my confession
and I"ll be your possession
girl I need your touch
your love kisses and such
with all my might I try but this I can't deny

I play it off but I'm dreaming of you
I'll keep my cool but I'm feeling

I try to say good-bye and I choke
I try to walk away and I stumble
though I try to hide it, it's clear,
my world crumbles when you are not near

Good-bye and I choke
I try to walk away and I stumble
though I try to hide it,
it's clear my world crumbles when you are not near

Dendrite Trinity

This story came out in two parts via Sunday Times, here then here. That was a tree cut down twice. Another is the matter of Manong Uldo, vol. 11, which I realized had been published by Free Press when word came out here.

Nevertheless, happy birthday.

Song of Iroh

Leaves from the vine
Falling so slow
Like fragile tiny shells
Drifting in the foam
Little soldier boy
Come marching home
Brave soldier boy
Come marching home

Maturity

I'm not cut out for guarantees. I can't say "I'll get around to it." And if I do say something that sounds like that, you'd best be advised to disbelieve; disbelieve! Thanks anyway, and a happy new year to you too.

The Childhoods

This story previously appeared in the Sunday Times. Ordonez and the co-editors included it in Past and Present: a Philippine PEN Anthology. They say the book's available in the regular bookstores.