My cousin Letty C. Espinellli wrote about a Japanese soldier we knew during the early 1940s. Here is her piece:
Continue reading “The Japanese Soldier in my Hometown”Blog
Diary 7/8/22
It was my first time to take the bus to Manhattan since the pandemic. I realized that I was no longer used to the urban setting, the crowds felt strange, and the dirt and traffic actually grated on me. Living in the foothills of the Appalachian or in Lake Harmony in the Poconos in Pennsylvania has made me more sensitive to my environment: I notice the noise, the air and the changes in the climate and nature, where the sun rises and sets and the phases of the moon.
Continue reading “Diary 7/8/22”Diary 6/5/22
On my way to Boston I drove through the empty streets of Sandy Hook, Newtown, Connecticut after the massacre of 20 children and 6 adults in 2012. I could not describe the grief that I saw in the air from the victims who were killed so mercilessly in cold blood. It was the same grief I saw when I visited the town of Balingiga in the Philippines where US soldiers were ordered by General Smith to kill every Filipino over 10 years old in 1902. It was also the same grief I saw when I visited the Vietnam War Memorial in Hanoi during the 50th anniversary of the My Lai Massacre when 504 unarmed older men, women and children were killed by the US military.
Continue reading “Diary 6/5/22”Saving the Sequoias
I was scrolling down the files when I saw this photograph of two giant tamarind trees just outside the Tao Garden in Doi Saket, Chiang Mai, Thailand. I do not how old they are. Perhaps 100 years? I also have a photo somewhere of 2 gingko trees in the Shaolin Temple in Loyang, Hunan Province that were, according to the plaque, at least 1000 years old.
Continue reading “Saving the Sequoias”May 2022
*May 5: I had great fun reading poetry on Zoom with the group at the Grind Coffee Open Mic in Vancouver, BC last Friday April 29. It was held at 7 PM, PT, 10 PM here on the eastern seaboard. I read poems from my book “Ascension and Return.” The program also included a “tour” of the artifacts in my study and a video of myself doing Classical Tai chi chuan fist and sword forms. It was one of the most memorable and happiest poetry readings I’ve done. I was surprised to see Kelsey Pardonner, an artist and friend from New Jersey, Jackson Tan, an acupuncturist and student from the Philippines and my cousin Ray Navarro from Oakland, California in the audience. It was too late in the night for me, I could barely keep my eyes open.
Continue reading “May 2022”March 2022
I am sorry that I haven’t blogged for sometime now. It’s partly because of the pandemic, partly because of work on my poetry book “Ascension and Return: Poetry of a Village Daoist” (TambuliMedia: 2020) and partly because I’ve kept busy with other projects.
Continue reading “March 2022”Video: Poetry reading
See video of Rene reading his poetry, filmed for the 2020 4th Annual Marble Summer Arts Festival – Poetry & Prose Program. (Rene is featured directly after the short introduction.)
Continue reading “Video: Poetry reading”Cambodia, Thailand
China
Luang Prabang, Kuala Lumpur, Cyprus
You’ll see these Buddhist monks everywhere in Laos. Young men who probably left their families when they were children to join a temple.
