Thank you L’Éphémère Review for publishing my poem!
Read the rest of the poem here: http://www.ephemerereview.com/michael-janairo
Originally posted Oct 5, 2011:
A home fit for a hobbit
Perhaps one of America’s most unique homes, the “Dune House” in Atlantic Beach, Florida is built into a grassy hill. Barely rising above ground, the Dune House might be more suited to a hobbit than a human. The property consists of two duplex apartments, and is currently listed for $1.2 million by Tansy Moon of Prudential Network Realty.
(Courtesy Tansy Moon/Prudential Network Realty)
Thank you, re:asian magazine, for including me in the “firsts” issue!
The poem touches upon things I’ve been thinking about since grade school when I first read the phrase “benevolent assimilation” as a U.S. description of its colonial policy with the Philippines.
The magazine has also published a photo I took of the home my Lolo — grandfather — grew up in Cavite.
Here’s an excerpt from the poem:
Something like fear structured my feelings around the word
Philippines and whatever it was that connected me to it
Check out the full poem on the re:asian website here and let me know what you think — either here or on the re:asian site.
Thank you to The Daily Gazette and Saratogian for highlighting the #518Day social media campaign slated for Thursday, May 18
What is #518Day? Learn more about it on this page.
Thank you to Charles Payseur at Quick Sip Reviews for taking the time to read my work and write about it. Very cool!
Quick snippet “strange and haunting” and “great”!
If you need more, here are some snippets from his review of “Instructions for Astronauts”:
This is a rather strange and haunting poem about humanity fleeing Earth in an attempt to survive, in an attempt to get to a different and better world, one unspoiled by our touch.
There is a strong religious element to the poem, all of the parts preceded by a biblical verse (save two) to set up how those sections read. These are the sections of the believers, of the grand hope for humanity. The renewal, the what-have-you. And I love that the poem sets itself up that way, with everything working and working toward this end, only to pull away at the ending …
He also calls the video “An amazing experience!”
Wow! Read what he wrote here.
Here’s the video
If you read my announcement on this blog last week, then you already know this news. But it caught the attention of the good people at the Albany Times Union, including current arts editor Gary Hahn. He worked his magic and one of the newest hires to the TU, Sara Tracey, was kind enough to write up my literary news.
Thank you, Gary and Sara!
You can read the full story here: http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Delmar-writer-s-poem-nominated-for-Pushcart-Prize-11089133.php
This was also buttressed from some really great social media mentions. Here’s a Twitter sampling
https://twitter.com/SaratogaPRgal/status/855447234082680832
You can also read the poem at Mithila Review.
So here’s a screenshot of something that I just saw today on the SF Poetry website:
Thank you, Star*Line magazine for the recognition!
I won’t know until much later this year if my poem gets picked.
The poem isn’t available online, but you can buy the edition it is in from http://www.sfpoetry.com/sl/issues/starline39.1.html. And it was inspired by the figure below, a work of art called Refugee Astronaut by the artist Yinka Shonibare, MBE.
Yinka Shonibare, MBE’s “Refugee Astronaut,” 2015, photograph by Michael Janairo
Michael Janairo 