These poems depict all the differences and changes that a Filipino immigrant experienced while living in the United States. Every poem in this book strongly tells about how it is to live in a foreign land. It reflects a point of view that most immigrants feel especially during their first few years of residence in the US.
This book is all about the life of an immigrant captured in poems: colorful, magical, nostalgic and challenging.
A SOCIETY FOR RENT
Why can’t we afford to live in our own?
We live a borrowed life in a rented community
We ride in a metered journey
We work through a graded career
We eat with bar codes constricting the transfat content
We drink by grids, which say moderately
We sit for dinner on bank loans, mortgages and lay-aways
We die in the land we weren’t born
We pay not by our money but through credit
We do everything in a rehearsed dialogue
Everything goes by the paper
We sign the contract and pay the price
But the price is not ours.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Project: Libro Ko Libro Mo (My Book, Your Book)
MISSION: To provide a selection of award-winning children’s picture books, books with CD’s, board books, big books published by well-known children’s book authors from the US and from the Philippines to young readers that will be accessible through the children’s library in Camiling, Tarlac.
GOAL: To raise $1000 for the creation of a children’s literacy section in the Municipality of Camiling, Tarlac by the end of December 2008.
HOW DOES THIS WORK: When you purchase a copy of my book, UP.UP.AWAY. ALL the proceeds and/or my royalties will go to this project. YOU, not me will be directly helping the children of Camiling to be exposed to great reading materials which are necessary for their literacy. I am just the tool, but this project is not possible without YOUR SUPPORT.
WHY AM I DOING THIS: I have always wanted to do something for the children of the community where I grew up in ~ but for some reasons or the other it seemed like it was too difficult for me to know where to start. But I knew I had to do something. I have to give back to my own people, especially to the children. My financial capacities are limited however my desire to deliver literacy and promote global education through reading books is limitless. That’s why I am here.
WHY DID I CHOOSE THIS LIBRARY: My father, Mr. Conrado S. Miguel played a very important role in our affiliation with the Camiling library. Every summer, every single day, throughout our elementary days ~ my father, who is a teacher would always bring us to the library in his motorcycle. He would leave us there and allow us to spend hours and hours reading the books that we like. As if that was not enough, my older sister Rachel and I would come home on Fridays with a big stack of books to finish on the weekend. This library was the host of our early affinity to books and would later take us to where we are right now. At that time, there were not many children’s books that were age-appropriate. Despite that, the books that were available for us opened our minds to a lot of information. This is the reason why this project will be focused on children’s books. I believe that children are capable of learning about different things and if they are given the appropriate reading materials, their vocabulary, their imagination, their creativity will increase. The amount of information that they can amass through reading will greatly affect whom they will become someday. And it is up to us to help them deliver the very first step.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
GOAL: To raise $1000 for the creation of a children’s literacy section in the Municipality of Camiling, Tarlac by the end of December 2008.
HOW DOES THIS WORK: When you purchase a copy of my book, UP.UP.AWAY. ALL the proceeds and/or my royalties will go to this project. YOU, not me will be directly helping the children of Camiling to be exposed to great reading materials which are necessary for their literacy. I am just the tool, but this project is not possible without YOUR SUPPORT.
WHY AM I DOING THIS: I have always wanted to do something for the children of the community where I grew up in ~ but for some reasons or the other it seemed like it was too difficult for me to know where to start. But I knew I had to do something. I have to give back to my own people, especially to the children. My financial capacities are limited however my desire to deliver literacy and promote global education through reading books is limitless. That’s why I am here.
WHY DID I CHOOSE THIS LIBRARY: My father, Mr. Conrado S. Miguel played a very important role in our affiliation with the Camiling library. Every summer, every single day, throughout our elementary days ~ my father, who is a teacher would always bring us to the library in his motorcycle. He would leave us there and allow us to spend hours and hours reading the books that we like. As if that was not enough, my older sister Rachel and I would come home on Fridays with a big stack of books to finish on the weekend. This library was the host of our early affinity to books and would later take us to where we are right now. At that time, there were not many children’s books that were age-appropriate. Despite that, the books that were available for us opened our minds to a lot of information. This is the reason why this project will be focused on children’s books. I believe that children are capable of learning about different things and if they are given the appropriate reading materials, their vocabulary, their imagination, their creativity will increase. The amount of information that they can amass through reading will greatly affect whom they will become someday. And it is up to us to help them deliver the very first step.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
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