An online preface: Essentially Invisible to the Eye

I know that this side project will go together with my latest law book at the MIBF (consider it as a B-Side, in album parlance), but a busy academic schedule, and awaiting the release of the copyright certificate (already done), delayed my introduction of my foray into creative writing with this collection of Sonnets, and Poems from the Pandemic.

I do not see myself as a prolific poet, as I only write on spurts of emotions and feelings. I kept some of those works from a couple of decades ago  – generally a mixed bag of views on life, love, emotions, and other points of view. I never thought of trying to publish my poetry… until I became an author for Centralbooks. After accomplishing five books on Political Law, I decided to try my hand in the self-publication of this present collective work.  

I look upon poetesses in writing poems. Emily Dickinson was introduced by in 4^th Year High School, and made me realize the concept of the poetic license, as well as how she layered the messages of her works. Sylvia Plath’s confessional poetry encouraged me to go beyond the soul of its reader, the same way she felt the pangs of her travails in real life. Elizabeth Barrett Browning provided with that point of discipline in writing Sonnets of similar rhyme, reason and passion. Finally, I was also inspired by another high school batchmate in Iris Orprecio – Price, who encouraged me to still continue pursuing the desires of the creative pen, despite the passage of time and against the vicissitudes and travails of life.

I chose as a title the memorable exhortations of the Fox from Exupery’s The Little Prince, which also left a mark -and true to the advice of Ms. R. Labay, I still read the book every year to see if it has changed its meaning. And in presenting to you my humble work, I am satisfied with the notion that the foregoing sonnets and poems are but my particular manifestations of how I still view things – that “it is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

See you on Friday, 15 September 2023, 2:00 p.m., at the Centralbooks Booth.

Essentially Invisible to the Eye is now available via Shopee and Lazada:

https://shp.ee/zf36x8s
https://s.lazada.com.ph/s.7Fqso