If I could, I would give my eyes back to GodReturn to sender, address unknownTo remove from me the grief that comesWith being slightly shadowed in everyday situationsThese pinpricks of space that adjust appropriatelyTo the dark, to the light, unto the breachCan't see the leaf on the wind, watch how…
All my life I straight tripped on who I wasWas I Filipino, was I American?For twenty-eight years, I could not assume either role,I was never pigeonholed, but I never belonged. My accent is Nor Cal born & bredMy height is so misledI eat rice with my handsI nosh hamburgers for…
In death, we treat everyone the sameUndeserved of the textbookdefinition of respect, in life. The ones we slurred for political opinions,judged harshly for the dead bedrooms,pitied the victims you stompedas you walked your Yellow Brick Road. Conversations drop an octavewhen the obituary is published.Truth benders erupt from the woodworkPraising the…
I haven't a song in my heartAll I hear is the dull roar of broken dreamsPounding in my head, steam trainIt's a wonderful world of colorEverything is in black & whiteUnderdetermined to keep moving forwardSailing off a cliff into oblivionI want freedom from the old waysBefore the end daysSplayed out,…
Forever the sickestThis is how I see myselfA little bit cynical, always a miracleI learned early on,Depend on no one but yourselfCall it a front, call it a shieldAin't no one but me stepping out on the fieldLife is but a dream, but loneliness is my realitySolitude / platitudes /…
I had the pleasure of seeing former Santa Clara County poet laureate Nils Peterson at the Willow Glen library in December 2016.
What I enjoyed about his overall style, compared to other poetry readings I’ve been to, is that he repeated himself. He would recite a poem or a thought, and repeat it, in case we didn’t hear him for the first time. After he would do that, he would take it one step further and make comments on it, as though it were a dialogue between speaker and attendee. It helped the audience comprehend what he was saying. To me, that was a fun and engaging way to present the material, rather than intoning on it like the work was sacred. He made the poetry accessible in this way.
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