I carry your heart with me (I carry it in
-by e.e. cummings


I carry your heart with me (I carry it in
My heart) I am never without it (anywhere
I go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
By only me is your doing, my darling)
I fear
No fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) I want
No world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
And it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
And whatever a sun will always sing is you

Here is the deepest se... read more

“The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros”


The word seemed to pop out of the poster hanging on the lobby wall of Manhattan’s Village Cinema. “DISARMING” – a film critic had chosen the word “disarming” to describe the film I was about to see, a Filipino film that had won awards at the International Film Festival in Berlin (the International Jury Prize, the Children’s Jury Prize), at the Las Palmas Gran Canaria Film Festival in Spain (Best Picture), at the Montreal World Film Festival (Best Firs... read more

THE FARM AT MANAOL

Plump green papayas
Bunched cheek by jowl
At the tip of their trunks
Like fat sisters
Huddled for a photo
Heads resting
Close together
The flat leaves
Green as their skin
Nearby the broad leaves
Of a banana tree
Shade the farmer
And his tenant
The sun beating down
On both men and trees
In a familiar grove
The farmer’s daughter pleased
With the growth of her trees
Taller than her head now
Banana and papaya trees
Scarce saplings before
Now sprouting ev... read more