Duterte: Umamin na totoong siya ang pinuno ng DDS hit squad na nasa likod ng mga kaso ng EJK?! (At may libreng libro dito!)

Ah okey. Eniwey, may sinulat din kasi akong koleksyon bago pa ng pag-amin ni Rodrigo Duterte sa Senado* nitong nakaraan lang. At ito ay binubuo ng kanyang mga "pag-amin" simula sa mga kaganapan noong kanyang kabataan hanggang sa pagbaba niya sa puwesto. Kathang isip lamang pero base sa mga balita't statements niya. Mga tula ito na base pa rin naman sa mga resibo, ika nga. (Parang talambuhay at psychological insight sa kanyang pagkatao.) Bale una ko na siyang "pinaamin" sa koleksyon na ito, haha! Sa wikang Ingles dahil isa ito sa mga proyekto ko bilang 2024 International Fellow ng International Human Rights Art Movement (IHRAM) na ang punong tanggapan ay sa New York, NY, USA. I-click dito para sa libreng digital copy ng medyo maiksing babasahin: Datuterte: Imagined Confessions 2024 (IHRAM 2024). Ito ang aking munting kontribusyon para sa karapatang pantao at demokrasya sa ating bansang Pilipinas. Dedicated sa mga biktima't naulila ng extrajudicial killings (EJK) noong panunungkulan ni Duterte. Sana'y makamit nila ang hustisya! 

(Cover art by Kaleb Sevilla)

Mga ilang positive reviews:

If there is anything you will read today, make it Karlo Silverio Lagman Sevilla III's free digital poetry collection, Datuterte. It's a unique, honest, and powerful collage of first-person poems spoken from Rodrigo Duterte's viewpoint, using real-life statements during his bloody six-year regime as Philippine president. It offers an encompassing grasp of his violent political term and is a product of Karlo's fellowship at International Human Rights Art Movement (IHRAM).

- Gretchen Filart, poet, Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net Nominee

. . . Karlo Sevilla, has a new book out and it pulls no punches. Assembled largely from public record, the poems reveal something tragic about their subject.

- Christian Smith, editor, The Isthmus 

More about the book from my previous post here.

At isa pang libreng libro, mahabang tula, base sa sigalot sa Palestina: The Boy On the Hill (IHRAM 2024).

*Binawi raw ni Duterte yung mga inamin niya, joke lang daw. Bale nagawa pang magbiro ng loko kahit under oath? Sabi naman ni Mon Tulfo, high daw kasi sa fentanyl. (Si Mon Tulfo nagsabi niyan, ha? Hindi ako.)

Maraming salamat! ✊

Plath and Bukowski

I have Sylvia Plath's "Collected Poems" and Charles Bukowski's "You Get So Alone..."

The former borrowed from my sister a year ago, and since I've no plan of returning it, it's mine.

(Anyway she just lives in the next building and may "borrow" it anytime.)

The latter I bought from National Bookstore a month or two ago --

with money my wife thought better (and more humanely) spent for our little daughter's milk.

(One afternoon I found them lying on top of the other on top of our plastic bedroom drawer.)

I believe reading them both is good for my, ah, "poetic education"

and mental health. 

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Happy Holidays and Happy New Year, everyone! 

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This blog is sponsored by Limitado

phone nos. 09167840522/ 023588753

and S.P.R.A.W.L.-MMA

3rd floor JN Building, 657 EDSA corner Monte De Piedad Street, Barangay Immaculate Concepcion, Cubao, Quezon City

Searching for nothing in particular at the bookstore

Upon entering I find, neatly arranged lying on a table,
among other books, "Leaving Time" by Jodi Picoult,

About a daughter searching for her mother.

Then going around a little, shelf to shelf, checking on others
on display, I pick up "Son" by Lois Lowry
(with who could be The Doors' Jim Morrison on the cover),

About a mother searching for her son.

Now is the perfect time to leave the bookstore,

to find money to buy the books, then the time to read them.

This blog is sponsored by Limitado

phone nos. 09167840522/ 023588753

and S.P.R.A.W.L.-MMA

3rd floor JN Building, 657 EDSA corner Monte De Piedad Street, Barangay Immaculate Concepcion, Cubao, Quezon City

The Unread

Ah, I have a new book to read!
I exclaim to myself after paying the cashier
at BOOKSALE for my new purchase.
(An old copy, really, but new to me.)

Then a week, a month, passes, and again...

Ah, I have a new book to read!
I exclaim to myself after paying the cashier
at BOOKSALE for my new purchase.
(An old copy, really, but new to me.)

Last week, my wife stored all my unread
inside a plastic trunk, and yesterday, 
I opened it and exclaimed,

Ah, I have new books to read!

This blog is sponsored by Limitado

phone nos. 09167840522/ 023588753

and S.P.R.A.W.L.-MMA

3rd floor JN Building, 657 EDSA corner Monte De Piedad Street, Barangay Immaculate Concepcion, Cubao, Quezon City