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Philippines Graphic Reader

Gifts from Heaven

(Intro: Shariff Kabungsuan Festival While Christians prepare for Christmas, the Muslims in Maguindanao prepare for the Shariff Kabungsuan Festival to commemorate the arrival of Islam in Maguindanao. For one week in mid-December, the people celebrate the arrival of Shariff Muhammad Kabungsuan to their shores. ...

Sagada Scents

I wake up to the Aroma of arabica This gray morning In this now quiet town, There’s gentle drizzle Glistening on rooftops, May it turn to rain, To ease the pain  Of trees in nearby Burning mountains, And quench the thirst Of parched payew* In distant villages.         *payew – irrigated rice terraces

Jawo’s Last Game

He sat on the bench at the Coliseum, feeling a bit cold, so different from the times he would preside in the center of the huddle, saying “this is you,” as he manhandled the round colored magnets on the coach’s board. He sat...

Kintsugi

How beautiful it is  to be conceived as earthenware—          tilled from soil,          pliant with water,          kneaded by skilled hands,          tempered by fire,          birthed by kilns.          Sacred. Inspired.          Where in rain, we are porous          and in any water, we saturate          without having to expand.          Uninclined...

Boy in the Forest

Small step by small step I walk slowly toward the edge of the forest. It is early morning. I can hear familiar morning sounds. This is where Father takes me sometimes to gather firewood, herbs and edible mushrooms while I hold on to...

The 2024 NICK JOAQUIN LITERARY AWARDS’ 82 GRAPHIC SALUTE AWARDEES

“Publication is the first hurdle of a writer who wants the public to read his or her work. Publication is the first level of the competition for public awareness. To breeze past the line-up of a hundred or more writers who submitted their...

Random Pickings

Seven Excerpts toward a Theory of Musicology (For Elizabeth)

Our estrangement It begins with a boat trip of course, as all things do, and where else but to Dumaguete, city in the south, year...

The Birth of Zaroasther

They connived with the dark shadows, the family who lived in a house full of glass windows and graven saints. Toraja invited me to...

Tropical Sundews

this is the timewhen the greens are greener than beforeas above so belowthe midges regret worshippingthe false god of all false beingsthe dewdrops and...

The Weight of Small Things

Fear is at the back of her mind, a shimmering heat in the distance, a glowing ember in the dark. Silently acknowledged but never...