It was while reading Mahmoud Darwish’s last book, an autobiography of sorts that is more poetry than anything else, that I heard of the Arab literary tradition of writing about oneself as if you were another person.I tried doing it when my good friend from the other side of the world (Australia!) asked to interview me. I hope I didn’t fail in my attempt. Thanks, Ryan, for this, and the friendship across so much land and water, so much difference in time. One day we’ll share a cup of coffee or a bottle of beer, laugh at the world that seems intent on keeping people apart.
Monthly Archives: September 2016
Claiming the title for a movie that’s still to be made
The Dumber of Two Devils. Yes, that’s mine. 😛
No production sked yet, no actors, no script. But the two characters will have a strong resemblance to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Anyone who tries to use that title will have to pay me. There. 🙂
My poem “Cousin’s Thumbnail” gets featured on NoiseMedium!
You take memory. Put it in a box. Shake it a bit. Open the box. Whisper into it. Close it up and shake it some more. Open the box. Take it apart. Look for the memory that seems to have disappeared. Now start writing what you remember, what should be remembered, what will always be remembered, and then make a new box out of air.
This is how “Cousin’s Thumbnail” was written. Now it has found a home at NoiseMedium. Please read the poem and leave a comment there. Or here. Thank you.
Heritage Month Poetry Reading
We’ll be reading poems on heritage from Rhino Poetry to mark its 40 years as well as poems on one’s own personal heritage. South Africa has an amazing heritage – from its landscape to its wonderful people – worth sharing with the rest of the world. Join us this Saturday if you are in Cape Town!
I Hate Found Poems and I Do Not Claim This One
I Hate Found Poems and I Do Not Claim This One
words by Gabriel Cardinoza, formatting by Jim Pascual Agustin
Five-year-old Danica Mae
Garcia, who was felled
last week by a bullet intended
for her grandfather, was buried
at the public cemetery here
on Wednesday. Some 150 relatives
and neighbors joined the funeral
procession. They waded in floodwater
that rose by half a meter
on a 100-meter stretch
of the road from Danica’s house
at Barangay Mayombo beside Pantal River,
which had been swollen
due to monsoon rain
and high tide in the past days.
No government official showed up
at the burial of the collateral damage
in President Duterte’s
war on illegal drugs.
-o-
Matangmanok 