ramblingsoul: Da Color Perpol

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Da Color Perpol

while our two other bandmates are currently bannering their poetics in the ongoing U.P. National Writers Workshop in Baguio, Easy has his first fiction titled "Purple Hearts" appear in this week's issue of the Philippines Free Press. and i've a geeky article on cooling down your PC for the summer. grab a copy! :)

Renga # 16

Bruises are blue flowers
blossoming on the body.
Did I just compare bruises
to flowers, in advance of metaphor?
This must be a poem, w/c is to say
lyricism is begged for.
To the beggars, lyrical bruisers,
I open my arms and say, Here, read
the marks of discontent. This body
is sentenced to make a statement.
Till it! Hoe it down!
And break the rocks open!
Until, the flesh disintegrates
into a field of sunflowers
hurling invectives to the sun.
kuwabatake, gelo, the city reader

About Joel

Joel M. Toledo holds a Masters degree in English Studies (Poetry) from the University of the Philippines Diliman, where he likewise finished two undergraduate degrees (Journalism and Creative Writing). He has authored three books of poetry – Chiaroscuro (UST Press, 2008), The Long Lost Startle (UP Press, 2009), and Ruins and Reconstructions (Anvil Publishing, 2011). Chiaroscuro was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Awards. Toledo was the recipient of the 2006 NCCA Literary Prize, and has won several literary awards for his poetry in English, including two Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards, The Philippines Free Press Literary Award, The Meritage Press Poetry Prize in San Francisco, USA, and the Bridport Prize for Poetry in Dorset, United Kingdom. He was a recipient of the Rockefeller Foundation Creative Arts Residency at the Bellagio Center in Italy in March 2011 and was the Philippine representative for the 2011 International Writers Program (IWP) at the University of Iowa, USA. Toledo is the current Literary Editor of the Philippines Free Press. He teaches Literature at Miriam College.