My Weblog

The Poetry Reading at Ming li's restaurant was exactly what I envisioned - it was like a well- fitting - party dress: right amount of audience (was worried of noise control). Thank you, to all of you who were there. And thank you also for buying my books and expressing your feed back on some of the poems. I really like that - it keeps me going. Like I said, my book is categorized so you can read a piece according to your mode. If you are thinking about a love-one, read a poem in "Romance," and if you are like me who likes "mysticism", do likewise. Try the "The Black cat", a poem inspired by a true experience. I do my reading (together with the other Poets of the Palm Beaches) every first Wednesday of the month at the Barnes and Nobels Book store in Wellington; second Wednesdays, at the Barnes and Nobels in Boynton Beach, third Wednesdays, at the Borders in Boca Raton, corner State Rd 441 and Glades - those who are poetically enclined, you are welcome to come hear me (and others) read.

I want to say thank you to Carol Porter for featuring us, Poets of the Palm Beaches - with pictures, in the latest issue of the "Town Crier". I went to the office, got several copies and gave them out to my fellow poets who don't get the paper in their driveways. We are all excited to be featured, especially Ray - he was so cute, excited like a little a child!

Anyway, man! October went zipped and Halloween is just around the corner, then before we know it, Thanksgiving comes running by, and following with not so many meters away is Christmas. I'm not ready at all. I will be working on Halloween, so my son will probably hand out candies to the little totsies trick or treating. I love doing this. I get a thrilling feeling each time I drop a candy into the wide openned bags of the children clad in various costumes. This year, I'm gonna miss it.

Back to my book, my Publisher, Outskirts nominated it for IVVY award (not sure what this is really). But I know for sure, it's for the goodness of the book, so I'm very excited. I'm supposed to do other stuff for the book - like being an author/seller in amazon.com, sending books to reviewers, and organizing readings with books store: all aiming to boast my book sale. But I am not savvy enough, or perhaps I lack time to be doing what I'm supposed to do. So I'm still up to this time trying to complete what's required. Oh, as far as book sale, I have a receipt book, I keep tab for all the book outflow (icluding those gave aways, which is quiet a number), and so far 55 books were out - not bad eh for an author like me! I keep tab so I can figure out the book's velocity in terms of who is reading it. Again, it thills me knowing it's being read,and that others are imbibing some of the poem's salaciuosness! And that's what's important to me. I know, by now, a copy is being read in St. James High School (school half way around the earth). My relative, Milton who lives in Wennipig bought a copy he was going to donate to the school when he went for a visit to the old hometown last month.

I googled to a website, a friend told me,  and learned I was selected as one of the "Igorot Achievers". Reading what they wrote about me and juxtaposing  me with men whose achievemnet, I'm not at all worthy of (considering...), I feel exulted! And the first time I read it,I felt airborn from excitement! Really!!! For those, who have no clue about the "Igorots", it is the name of a tribe in Northern Philippines where I immigrated from.Try visiting "Igorot.com". The last few years, I had been trying my best in the little ways I know how to contribute or help with the organization whose aim is to promote or preserve the culture of the tribe. I am just very, and deep into my very core grateful for being selected as an "Igorot Achiever,"  a tangible sign my artistic craft (Poetry) is being recognized  big time. And again, reading the others who were selected, their achievements are certainly par excellence! Once more, thank you very much to the person or group who  are instrumental in my selection. Thanks to Blogger Bill Bilig!

For my friends in BIBAKNETS, I had been very busy lately packing and so not much time to spare and respond to the many exciting postings you all are posting. But I'd been lurking! And once in a while I interject. I still have it my priority to devise a lucrative fund-raising tool for the scholarship of which (we all know), I am the Chair. And please for those who have great fund-raising ideas, please feel free to post them in BIBAKNETS. And so we can discuss them and glean the best and most doable. In the past, almost all ideas were sieved from postings of members in BIBAKNETS, you know.

Happy Halloween! And I hope, soon as I get settled in my new home, I'll do more postings (in my blog site and in BIBAKNETS). I have exciting new poems to share! 

My regards,

Jocelyn

Poetry

Sunset Blues

I see a fiery disc in the western sky

dow,down,down it slips beyond

darkness slowly lurks againts what's left

of the vanishing scarlet sparkle

glowing, staring at the face of the planet

now whirling and circling like a top

thrown to a well stomped mound.

She sees  darkness coming-mother

earth has to hit the sack. The days

work is hard, full of bumps and

sharp edges refractory to the

the joy hummed by hummingbirds.

The Film Of Life

I see a film I have not seen before

As I begin my journey past the door

I try my best to fix the ones I lost

But I'm not sure if what I do is good

The ink of this printer is fading out

So is my sight - I can't see clear and bright

Lights faded out at some point in my life

Thank goodness gadgets can restore my site

The fibers of this film keeps getting low

As years go by some strings break down and go

Some hairs must shed and skin less taught

And bones can break like ice cream cones

I spread my wings and strech my numbing brain

And let my nuerons quiz and  smell the past

When dreams were innocently conceived to begin

And plans for life were undefidely puffed to start.

Poetry

              Scribble

She came up the road to meet me.

She had the baby slung on her back

with a faded and stained sheet.

She smiled meaningfully and helped me

step down the stones so ruggedly placed

in a heap to form a wall, and we entered

their one-room cold and dusty home.

Then we walked like we used to as sisters

growing up, down the edges of a sloped

vegetable farm, to wash clothes and dishes

in a crude well, that's also used for

irrigating the cabbage patches.

The following day I left penniless as

when I arrived, and the reason for my visit -

to borrow money from her, failed - she was

broke herself. But the moment is like a

scribble on a once wet concrete floor

now dried for others to see.

Note: When I was a struggling student nurse, I went to visit my sister who was living in Bangaw, Philippines thinking, I'll be able to money from her. It turned out, it's the most ever remembered visit I ever did to anyone in my life. What me and her did at that time:  going to wash dishes in a water source they rigged up for anything that requires water; walking the edges of the cabbgae patches the following morning and seeing the dews all over the spreading cabbages, and doing chores with water so icyy cold, and reminiscing about the life we had as pre-schoolers in Besao gave me  unforgettable memories...still writing about it.

Poetry

          Night Scream

I hear me screaming, in the silence of

the night, when nothing, but the screech

of crickets, and distant croaks of frogs,

are heard, for my baby, I heard crying

piercingly and swiftly stopped. It woke me

up. Then I go around the house, wishing

she was miraculously returned. First,

I look at the front porch, and then by

the garage door. No baby, and I pray

once again, like I do everyday that

someday, I will see her, like the other

mothers I heard, being reunited

with their babies, by sympathetic judges.

Problem is, I am alone in a silent war zone.

I posted two poems yesterday but I don't understand why they did not go through (to the website). Anyway, just a while ago, I made a change in my website. I replaced one poem with a new one. I sure wish I could post more than two. Well, I'll do it here. Anyway, this afternoon, I finished the invitation or notice for my upcoming poetry reading and signing at the Meng Li's Restaurant in West Palm Beach. I am excited as there are several people at work who are excited. It'll be a challenge too...had to show 'em I can do it. I'm also going to be the featured reader for the Poets of the Palm Beaches Monthly Poetry Contest on the third Sunday of this month. As a featured reader I will read for 15 minutes, then sit right in front to judge the contestants. Yeah right, I'm gonna be the judge! I'm excited in a way, because I'll be able to read poems of my selections, and if I desire, I can tell the listeners what inspired a particular poem. So this will really be a great chance. But I never did this...I'm nervous already. I'm now beginning to collect anti nervousness and hoping I'll be ready when those time comes. l

Storm Ernesto

You know why Ernesto did not develop into a hurricane? Because, it's better to say "Storm Ernesto" than Hurricane Ernesto" Think of Poetry...

Well, Ernesto just passed over Palm Beach County, mildly so they say - only about 45 miles per hour wind. But we all readied our selves . The galoons of water, the generator filled up with gas after lining miles at the gasoline station, the rice and beans that "will never spoil' (if uncooked of course), the water in the tub in case we'll run out of water, the boarded window, ect. Thanks to wilma, we learned our lesson. Just wish, it's minus the panic, the rush, the anguish, the elbow to elbow at the grocery, and the quicky escape with a filled up gas tank (of course)  even if it means 20 miles per hour crawling north in I-95 and the Florida Turn Pike. And the bonus! (because there is)...no work for those whose work are service-related, like me, as no walking patients would come to our department when there's hurricane. And the kids: no school. Like snow day up north - I remember a poem by Billy Collins called "Snow Day". Yup "the little nursery school is closed, all schools are closed..."  and there's snow (it seems) but up in the sky(grin).

Before the storm, there was a wide flock of black birds migrating north, an ominous sign it seemed. And then I thought of the ducks at the canal near our house - last year with Wilma ravaging at a 100+/per hour wind, they were like soldiers out in the fields standing erect. It was sureal to watch them. And I wonder if where will they gonna be this time. And sure, I watched them this morning when the storm was over some miles away, they were cowering under the tree. Then I wonder, perhaps they know that the wind is not strong enough to break the twigs from the tree so they feel safe. Ducks are wise. And believe me, they are wiser than the young mother who drowed her children.

With the storm a storm and  not a hurricane, thanks God, I know I won't have to cross a three - lane highway like a  four-way-stop-sign. This is the most I dreaded with hurricanes. Four-way-stop-crossing the intersection of Forest Hill Blvd. and State Road 441 last year after Wilma at rush hours was like being in a war-torn country, and being extra careful for  land mines.

I see my neighbor out there in his pool's deck. Happpier than last year. Now he has no screen to worry about. They say in South Florida, the best screen is "no screen" as well as the best tree is "no tree".

Serendipity

Finally through this blog (I'm new about, so please bear with me) I have the courage to let you all know about my book, a book of Poetry, I titled "Serendipity"  and was published by OutskirtsPress. But why Serendipity though, when it seems to be a word so cliched? It's because, my being a poet (yup, I published a Poetry Book) was all "serendipity."  When I hurt my knee from a tread mill accident in the end of 2003, I was in deathly pain with them knees looking like noodles smeared with tomato paste. While waiting for my turn to be treated in the ER - the wait was like forever, I decided to create a diversion, picked up a pencil and a pen, and surprizingly, I wrote a simple verse about my hometown. I looked at my creation and it was surreal! Since then I never stop writing poetry. Sure wish I could quit my day job and devote my time writing. Oh about my book, please visit www.outskirtspress.com/jocelynnoe

To those of you who already bought my book, I hope you are finding pleasures going through the pages, and essencially imbibing the fluidity of some of the words. My book is categorized for easy referencing and guiding whatever your hearts so desire. The first category "Connections" is basically about self reflection (really). The others are pretty much self explanatory. My favorite ( could be for many of you too) is the "Romance" and the "Secret Admiration Category". The book can be ordered from Amazon.com, Barnes & Nobels and through OutskirtsPress.Com.

I have several poems that won "honorable mentions" but were not included in my book as the book was closed to finish by the end of May, and these poems came after that.  I would like to invite you to visit our website www.Poetsofthepalmbeaches. Presently, my poem "Flight" is in there 'cause it garnered honorable mention for the month of June.  At the next issue, you should be able to see two poems: "Night Scream", won honorable mention for July, and "Scribble", a second honorable placer for August.  The poem "Scribble" was inspired by my once - upon - a -time - visit to my sister when I was a struggling nursing student.

A reading party and book signing is scheduled for September 30 at the Meng Li's Restaurant/ Asia-Pacific Grill at the NW corner of Cresthaven Blvd. and Military Trail in West Palm Beach. We'll start the party at 7PM, have the quiet/reading time at 8:30PM, and have the rest of the evening for Karaoke. It will be fun! We already have Elvis, Ricky Martin, and Patsy Clines lookalike or voice wanabes. I will have copies of my books to sell -

Like I said at the outset, I'm new with this  blog thingy. I'll do better next time. for now, good night!

Jocelyn