the mental washing machine

If you’re anything like me, then some things are started that just don’t get anywhere near completion. Sometimes it’s sad when I clean out my file storage. Yesterday, while backing up, and doing general cleaning on my files, I discovered the miserable state at which I have left my notes and such. I have another load of unfinished laundry in my mental washing machine. They range from half baked stories to essays with no conclusions, project proposals and ideas that should have been set in motion months before. It’s ugly, how my brain farts are all over the place.

There comes a point when you are desperately out of anything to wear and you are left to two choices: sniff each one of your articles of clothing to see if there’s anything that the mold haven’t got to yet, or roll up your sleeves and fire up the washing machine. I should be firing up the washing machine, I know. Though after careful sniffing, here’s something I wrote eons ago that the mold hasn’t got its fungal fingers on:

Have you ever been constipated before? You want to poop but can’t, however hard you tried? (Actually, if you tried hard enough you might get yourself hemorrhoids.) Anyway, bad bloody images aside, constipation is a bad, bad thing to have. Good things come to those who cannot shit though, as there are drugs available that can help you (nope, this is not an ad) whereas you can’t drink anything to cure constipation of the brain.

When one gets brain constipation, ideas refuse to be shat out and sentences that were there a second ago vamoose into thin air. This is typically bad news for somebody like me, who like the girl in the Dulcolax commercial feels terrible, out of sorts, and irritable. The difference between me and the girl in the commercial is that she doesn’t get paid to empty her bowels, I on the other hand, am paid to write.

Under the Storm: 150 poets, 150 pieces of contemporary poetry

Jim Morrison said it best, “Listen, real poetry doesn’t say anything; it just ticks off the possibilities. Opens all doors. You can walk through any one that suits you.” I’ll admit it on the outset – I can’t write poetry. Good thing the inability to write poetry (or at least poetry that doesn’t evoke peals of sidesplitting laughter) doesn’t dampen my ability to appreciate a good poem. .MOV International Film, Music, & Literature Festival has teamed up with The Antithesis Collective Publishing Co. to produce an anthology of epic proportions.

The collection is aptly entitled Under the Storm: An Anthology of Contemporary Philippine Poetry and features the works of 150 poets (known and unknown, emerging new talent and enduring poets). With this eclectic mix of poems in various styles and techniques, Under the Storm holds a lot of promise within its 360something pages.

Under the Storm is geared for launch tomorrow, September 2, 2011 at the Ayala Museum. Cocktails start at 6PM. Under the Storm: An Anthology of Contemporary Philippine Poetry is available for pre-order at theantithesiscollective.com/shop for PHP 450 (pre-ordering ends today). It will be sold at the 4^th .MOV International Film, Music, & Literature Festival (Sept. 1-6) for the special festival price of PHP 600. Once The Storm hits the shelves, its regular retail price will be PHP 800.

If you’re still on the fence whether or not you want to pre-order the book, check out the pictures below.

More at YuppieUniverse.com

Under The Storm: An Anthology of Contemporary Philippine Poetry

Handa ka na bang sumugod sa gitna ng unos? Pwes, magkita-kita na lang tayo bukas sa Ayala Museum para sa official launch ng Under The Storm: An Anthology of Contemporary Philippine Poetry, Day 2 ng MOV International Film, Music, & Literature Festival. 6PM, September 2, Ayala Museum. Ulit-ulitin para maisaulo.

Gwapong-gwapo, fresh off the presses! Today ang huling araw ng 450pesos pre-order price (kung gusto mong humabol, larga na sa theantithesiscollective.com/shop, as in ngayon din). Sa Ayala Museum bukas, 600pesos ang presyong launch at MOV International Film, Music, & Literature Festival. Tumatagingting na 800 pesos ang regular retail price after the festival.