The Secret Lives of Punctuations, Vol. I

Written by Eileen Tabios and published by xPress(ed), this is one book I've been waiting and waiting for, and it's here :) Go get your own copy, and peruse lovingly: the words, the lines, all these which seem to invite the reader to respond, and engage in conversation with the poet.

Congratulations, Eileen. What a beautiful new book. It's absolutely scrumptious.


There is this poem at the beginning that I am reading:

;TO STUDY ART IS TO BECOME THIN

;despite Cezanne's desire, the world is never unclad

;to peruse a painting (intently) and see only one's
uncertainty over where to look

;mistaking science for "bathroom graffiti"

;why flinch when penetration results from the swish of
a kilt

;figuration, not abstraction, the synonym for ambiguity

;white velvet ribbon become bookmark

;lace


And I have to write here -- upon reading the title, I thought to myself, "oh yes, I wish..."

And I have to laugh because before I go home I have to lose some weight or people will accuse my husband of letting me loose in the kitchen.

And I wonder...what is it with Filipinos and our obsession with thinness? Even in my single days, I was constantly hounded about not being thin enough...and here I am married and fighting the weight thing everytime I have to go home...

And why should I mind anyway what people say about how big I am?

And I remember Naomi Woolf's "Beauty Myth", how upon discovering this book, I began to embrace myself for who I am.

And I recognize how sometimes commenting on my bigness may be the only thing some people can think of to say about me, because they don't know what else to say anyway.

So, why don't we just say it...why don't we just say... I don't know what to say.

But, this post wasn't about me. This is about The Secret Lives of Punctuations, Vol. I ;)