By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo EIGHTY-six percent of the 119 million population (2024) of the Philippines are Catholic. The country is the only other place, aside from the Vatican City State (population 825), where divorce is not legal. The proposed law is being opposed by the Catholic Church, not necessarily…
By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo THE first stories I heard about Barbara “Tweetums” Gonzalez-Ventura were from an equally vibrant personality, the late Josefina Geslani-Lolarga, who spoke glowingly about her book, “How Do You Know Your Pearls are Real?” I never read this book. In 2011, I was a member of…
Secrets of the Heart
By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo I MEANT to compose a poem for the West Philippine Sea for a week now, but the words refuse to come out. In times when the words freeze, I wait it out, until a voice gently rolls out an inspiration. The inspiration were photos of…
Urdujas and the West Philippine Sea
By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo THE image of her friend in a wheelchair bothers her. It is an image Enya had not gotten used to, having known Amira as a vibrant, cheerful woman, gifted with intelligence and a capacity to help the less fortunate. That image is somehow fading, being…
The wheelchair
By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo THIS poem was composed in 2015, for a friend who did everything for her husband who didn’t realize she existed. It is a poem for women who try so hard, without realizing they could be happier with a rubber shoes. You will miss me…
Invisible you
By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo THE heat is real. It can only get worse. What use are the parks if the heat prevents us from going there? Given the projections on the impact of climate change, protection and development of green spaces become imperative. Parks (including memorial parks), athletic ovals…
Going, going, gone!
By Virginia Jamin Pasalo A GOOD friend from Puerto Rico, Luz Maria Lopez, is publishing “a little book with selected poems in English” and requested me to write a very short simple blurb, around five lines. She wants me to do this because she says, I’m familiar with her…
Poetry and disconnect
By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo THE days are shorter, I believe, with each day ending without finishing as much task as before. Perhaps it’s the heat, perhaps it’s the burgeoning traffic, the sea of humans on the street, or maybe it’s my body’s declining capacity to cope with the usual…
Shorter days
By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo I MEAN, your garden, your personal planned space for the cultivation of plants including other forms of nature. What happens, after you’re gone? At Teachers Village where our family stayed for more than ten years at an 800 square meters of vacant space, I had…