The Power of the Wind By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   1:56 a.m. rushing in through the open window/dancing with every movable object in the room/the wind waves, a magic wand. On September 15, Ompong broke through Mapagkawanggawa Street, blasting a transformer ten meters away from where I stood feeling the wind….

Establishing “facts” By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   IN 1997, during his professorial lecture at the City College of Manila, Ambeth Ocampo, former Chairperson of the National Historical Commission (NHCP) said “Personally, I think this controversy like that of the site of the first mass — Limasawa, Leyte or Masao, Butuan…

Chewing Gum By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   I have no doubt that Senator Trillanes submitted the documents required to give him amnesty. To believe otherwise is an indictment of the negligence, ineptness and utter corruption of the bureaucracy. It is meant to give the public something to chew. While the…

Crossover By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   “I know of a cure for everything: salt water…in one way or the other. Sweat, or tears, or the salt sea.” –Karen Blixen In the quiet of the night, all the sounds, the howling of dogs, car wheels on slow pace, muffled air-conditioning and…

Move on By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   ALL those lessons in respect, honor, good manners and right conduct from teachers of long ago, and all the philosophies that guided wisdom, what happened to it? We should not be in this abyss. We should be moving on to what truly moves…

Canal Grande di Venezia By Virginia J. Pasalo   IN Italy, Canal Grande di Venezia (Grand Canal of Venice) has inspired the creative energies of many, owing to its artistic heritage and history. Juxtaposed against the complexity of the modern times, it remains “the most beautiful road in the world”,…

“Pepe” de sarapen, de kutsilyo de “dede”sen By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   SA daloy ng “pagsisilbi” mo sa gobyerno, merong kanya-kanyang haka-haka kung bakit takot ang Pangulong ikaw ay kastiguhin. Malaking bagay ang naitulong mo sa pagkapanalo niya bilang Presidente. Pero hindi iyon ang katuwiran, dahil marami nang sinibak ang…

Forgetting By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   THE kaimito tree is gone. It gave way to “development”. I was hoping somehow that the new owners of the corner lot along Kalayaan and V. Luna Streets fronting Jollibee will somehow allow it to live, given the fact that for some time they…

Talampunay Blues By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   BEFORE President Duterte delivered his third State of the Nation Address (SONA), I posted on FB, my own characterization of his previous speeches: “Sonambulism: reporting while sleeping, digressing from the official report and talking only about one thing, obsessively.” Sonambulism is not a…

Lost in translation By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo   TRANSLATIONS are as good as the understanding of a translator of the poem and the context of the author. The nuances, subtlety and significance of words, and the complexity of context make some translations unable to capture the essence of a poem….