Finding new places...

On the internet, I find places and people whom I otherwise would not have found.

Found: Bagong Filipina, a website that features excellent articles, poetry, stories, essays by filipinas from all over the world. Found on this website, five poems and an essay: The Naming of My Child, by poet and writer, Eileen Tabios.

Also found: Lolo's Bride, a short story written by Veronica Montes.

Barbara Jane Reyes's Blog. Barbara Jane has a new book out,Gravities of Center, a collection of her poetry which recieved a superb review from Philippine News. Reading that review makes me wish that I was in a land where I don't have to wait three to six weeks for an english book to arrive on my doorstep. Barbara Jane's poem, "Manila Mango", also appears in "Versal Three", a publication of Words In Here.

Words In Here, is the only group of english speaking and writing poets and writers in the Netherlands. I also found them on the Net and that's how I winded up going to my first ever literary event, the first Amsterdam Literary Festival.

Reading poetry written by real poets, I think of how much I still have to learn. I think the beauty of poetry is in the layered words and symbols, meanings hidden within meanings. Are these things that can be learned? I really don't know. I only know that when I read what other poets write, I stand in open mouthed amazement, wondering how they did that.