By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   A friend of mine told me that freedom is an illusion. Another mentioned that some have more freedom than others. Are we truly free? In “Freedom”, a poem I wrote about the idea on 04 July 2014, I think I found an answer: “Today, we…

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   I wrote “Yellow Light” to start the Poetree Train, a chain of poems about trees to celebrate the World Poetry Day nine years ago, 01 March 2016 published in “Kiew: An Anthology of Tree Poems”, a collection of 148 tree poems and ten translations into…

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo    A tribute to the sand, who came, and stayed inside of me, theoretically, erratically. Happening I am not, tonight, going to talk not because I have nothing to say, (because there’s much I’m going to say) but because I can’t speak about pain, the kind…

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   ON 12 May 2025, we are going to elect those who will govern our country, the ones we will be calling, “Honorable”, whether they deserve it or not. Most of those we elected could not even pass a regular job interview, but had been entrusted…

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) or doulourex typically happens when “a blood vessel puts pressure on the trigeminal nerve near the brainstem”. This nerve provides sensation to the head and face. According to neurologists, the condition isn’t life-threatening, but it can be life-altering. It is typically chronic (long-term) but…

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   NOT all ailments can be cured by the latest medicines. Some medicines may impact on vital organs causing them to fail, aggravating the original condition they are prescribed to cure. Science is responsible for a lot of new pharmacological remedies, but its limitations are real….

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   EVERY time a classmate travels to the Philippines, we make sure to get together as much as possible. Since three of them were coming in the first quarter of 2025 at different months, we deferred the event three times to wait for another one whom…

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   NOTHING is coming. It is as if my mind is at rest, admitting only nothing. I wait. What is waiting? I thought for a while, “Why are people who serve in restaurants called, waiters?” And why is a woman attending to a royal woman or…

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   LAST Thursday morning at 3:23 a.m., my niece Jam sent me a message, “Yung moon may rainbow”, accompanied by a photo. I went out to see it, but it was a bright moon with no rainbow. At 10:16 p.m. on the same day, Jam sent…

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   LAST year on 15 April 2023, my niece Emerald Grace Sacedor Catbagan posted a shocking revelation: “I have Lupus. On my 35th, three months after being diagnosed with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), I finally have the courage to tell everyone.“ In that post, she mentioned…