One of the things I love about writing is what, over the years, I’ve come to know as The Flow. It’s that Time beyond time. It’s when the words come, in a smooth rush or a river of images, and I no longer feel I’m “in control” of the story. The Voice that rings in [...]
A new page to check out: “Sisterhood of Motherhood”. A couple of poems devoted to the beautiful and challenging process of becoming a mother. Enjoy! – MGB
65,000 gallons on land.
“The oil spill has been contained,”
an official-sounding man from Caterpillar
chirped brightly on NPR’s morning newscast.
No more wildlife will be affected –
beyond the ones already touched.
6,000 gallons of oil
sludged into the Des Plaines River.
How many blue gills?
How many herons?
How many egrets?
How many frogs?
How many salamanders and newts?
How many beavers, raccoons, button bushes?
No need [...]
Flat white Great Lakes sky,
Distant frozen fog,
Yet warm enough
for hammers
to sound on rooftops.
Men work in hooded sweatshirts,
jeans, thin tennis shoes
upon brick bungalows
that kept us warm
in the bleak months.
But the trees
stand haggard,
bare-limbed and stoic.
Maple and oak and Kentucky buckeyes -
indistinguishable to my eyes.
All stand equally stripped,
naked, vulnerable
in the diminishing chill.
Oh, how they stretch
their feathery twig tips
towards [...]
Perched securely on a branch
above my car,
the Cooper’s hawk
munched on young pigeon.
Starlings scattered,
downy feathers
drifted like summertime snow
upon my head.
A tattered yellow book, ZEN FLESH, ZEN BONES sold for 50 cents at a used book store. Thin, old tape hangs the front cover onto the manuscript’s body; the back cover is lost to moves from Los Angeles to Berkeley to Chicago. Inside, over 100 stories and problems and ancient teachings from 5 centuries of [...]
In the 16th century Philippines, Visayans had ingeniously divided the day into hours based on events like: Iguritlogna, the time that hens lay eggs. Or Natupongna sa lubi, the time when the sun descends into the palm trees. My favorite is Makalululu, the hour when you point to the sun and your bracelets slide down [...]
If you read the last posting (Kadaugan, Part IV), you’ll know that I started out at the Kadaugan sa Mactan getting stuck in a poor spot, 3 rows of people behind a fence that separates the audience from the Re-enactment of the Battle of Mactan on the shores of Magellan Bay. And, with a bit [...]
We left the hotel this morning at 7 a.m. and caught a taxi out 11 kilometers to the Mactan Shrine where there are two monuments, one is a marker of the place where Magellan fell in battle. And the other marker is for Lapu-lapu. Every year, they re-enact the Battle of Mactan. This year was [...]
When planning for this trip, I’d focused a lot on the Battle of Mactan. It’s what we Westerners tend to focus on in history: the battles, the wars. I’m not the first (and won’t be the last) to notice that we human beings seem to mark our epochs from one time of war to another. [...]