Jim Pascual Agustin's Blog, page 2

New Year, New Paper Child in the Adopted Country

https://www.instagram.com/p/DEUYc07sGJD/?igsh=MXNvNjFqd3JwbXMzcQ==

New paper child rebirth. More details soon.

Ang Propaganda ng Dighay at ang Kasaysayan ng Utot

Ang Propaganda ng Dighay at ang Kasaysayan ng UtotDownload

The PDF retains the structure of the poem as intended. I’m pasting the text below for those who can’t download the file.

Ang Propaganda ng Dighay at ang Kasaysayan ng Utot

Isa akong anti-war at tagapagtaguyod ng kapayapaang pandaigdig. At naniniwala akong ang kalapating tagapagdalá ng oliba ay hindi agad pumapanig sa isang digmaan. Sa halip, nagsisikap siyáng mamagitan para humupa ang bangis ng mga punglo at kanyon, para matiyak na ligtas ang mga mamamayan, at mabawasan ang komersiyo ng mga pabrika ng sandatang pandigma. Hindi na natin matitiyak ang may kasalanan sa bawat pag-aaway, lalo’t napakahabà ng kasaysayan ng poot sa magkabilâng panig. Subalit mapalalakas natin ang tinig ng demokrasya at katarungan kung mas marami ang magwawasiwas ng oliba kaysa magdadagdag sa mga karatula at rali ng poot. Iwasan natin ang de-susing damdámin at kalapating nakapiit sa hawla ng bulág na kalayàan.
Virgilio S. Almario
Ferndale House
19 Oktubre 2024

Hindi sa tumbong nagsisimula ang kasaysayan ng utot.
Hindi ito matutunton sa pagsusuri ng asim ng mukha
ng mga sawimpalad na tinamaan ng pagpagaspas nito
matapos makalaya mula sa mga kuweba at tubo ng laman.

Mahirap masundan ang sayaw ng panandaliang sangsang, depende
sa ihip ng hangin o bilis ng palad na palihim na pumapaypay
nang maitago ang inusbungan. Masasabing may agham ang pagtakas
sa mga mapanurong nais mag-imbestiga ng nasabing krimen.

Sa isang banda, kahit may kaugnayan ang utot at dighay,
mas katanggap-tanggap ang ikalawa. Mas madaling patawarin
kahit na may sariling sangsang ding dala. Di-tulad ng utot,
ang dighay ay may tapang na idinideklara.

Kapwa man di-makita, may tagpuan sila sa kaloob-looban
ng iisang katawan, Ginoong Almario. Hindi naiiba sa piniling puno’t dulo
ng mga away na hindi talaga naiiba sa sayaw ng mga bandera
at pagnanakaw sa lupaing kinagisnan, sa halip na mitolohiya lang.

-o-

If the reader would like to trace the source of the epigram, it is from an article that appeared on Facebook. Your feedback and thoughts are always welcome.

Free poems – a preview

What I want to say has to be in PDF format. So please download and read it. Give me feedback if you have the time and patience.

Intergalactic Nightmares from ALIEN TO ANY SKINDownload

INTERVIEW: How Jim Pascual Agustin’s poetry bears witness

https://www.rappler.com/life-and-style/literature/interview-how-jim-pascual-agustin-poetry-bears-witness/

New Contrast Poetry Prize

Got shortlisted for the New Contrast Poetry Prize (ex-National Poetry Prize… poster didn’t get updated) for a poem that may upset some people, make others laugh, or go wah?

All poets will be reading their work and another poem on Monday evening (April Fools!) after which the winners will be announced.

Join us on ZOOM https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3881622255?pwd=QlhSRktjNWkyeThZY2s1aHFuZ2hkUT09

When Liars Spread Nothing But Lies, Their Tongues Will One Day Turn to Dust

The so-called liberal media of the US and Europe have lost their way.

This was laid bare in the past few months since October 7. They have allowed themselves to be used in manipulating public perception so blatantly that as the lies were revealed, they’ve had to make up more lies.

We can no longer believe what The New York Times, The UK Guardian, the BBC, and a whole lot more when it comes to reporting about Palestine and other places where traditional colonial powers used to reign, or where new empires and their brutal representatives use their murderous weapons and technologies to control the local population.

Please read THIS ARTICLE that exposes the complicity of mainstream news agencies in creating this genocide in Gaza and the rest of Palestine.

How the Western media helped build the case for genocide in Gaza

Waking up to the Pattern Left by a Snail Overnight arrives in the Philippines!

Philippine edition of WAKING UP TO THE PATTERN LEFT BY A SNAIL OVERNIGHT out soon!

Here is the link to the Instagram post of Ateneo de Manila University Press

I was blinded by propaganda before 2008

I didn’t know what the Nakba was until friends in the Czech Republic started telling me about what Israel has been doing to Palestinians for decades. That shock was back in 2008.

I was deeply bothered with what I found out, so much so that I began to write a series of poems about a people I had never met, a place I had never visited.

I still intend to share all those poems as a set one day. But this just came to mind now as many people prepare for the coming year.

Please don’t choose to remain blind.

-o-

Israel Needs Shoes

new moon dimmed by flares
shoes scatter on rubbled streets
not one matching pair

-o-

I wrote that in January 2009 and appears in ALIEN TO ANY SKIN (UST Publishing House, Manila 2011)

A few days ago and years before

Screen shot from the Atticus Review website.

10 days before Christmas, depending on your location in this little world that still seems so divided, and I’m struggling to feel it.

I’ve gotten used to living near the lowest point of Africa where this time of year is actually warmer and not at all wintery. Maybe these days it’s not that much warmer than where I came from originally, with climate change and all.

My mind is full of worry about people I don’t really know, in another part of the world I have not even visited. But, after waking up from the slumber of falsehoods in my youth, I grew to know about them and their decades of struggle under a power that is armed by bigger empires of previous centuries.

It seems almost selfish then to share personal news at this moment, such as this piece that has been published in The Atticus Review.

The poem was written when my mother was still with us in this world. I’d like to believe she is elsewhere happier.

A few days ago I wrote another poem about her and my father. It got published in the AVBOB Poetry website. It’s called “Another 14 Years.”

I wish to thank the editors of The Atticus Review and the AVBOB Poetry website for welcoming my work.

#FreePalestineNow

#FreedomForEveryone

I’m not a Fish

I’d like to be a bird in my next life – a langaylangayan (swallow) and then a sacred ibis, if I could choose.

Photo by Ruel Laurenciana, taken on a famous bridge in New York.

Being a fish would be good too, one day. But they say a fish gets caught by its mouth. Or an industrial net these days, I guess, monstrous and species-ending.

I’m not a fish for now. But it’s a bit like being caught by your own big mouth when you are interviewed.

I was given the space to blabber, and blabber I did. Prolific US-based author Eileen Tabios is partly to blame. The 16th issue of HALO-HALO REVIEW features a post-book release interview of yours truly.

I’m not promising anything. I just keep dreaming while doing what I can in the time that I have.

So many are robbed of that chance, particularly in Palestine.