PRE-SCHOOL POETICS

I am helping out a pre-school/kindergarten program in a barangay (village) back in the Philippines. This program, like others like it, is important as I learned recently that only about 40% of Filipino children finish elementary school, and only about 20% complete high school.

Only 20% finish high school! This is a dismaying statistic. And a "get real" contrast with the "official" literacy rate exceeding 90%. (And if poetry books get harder and harder to publish in the Philippines, wouldn't such make sense in light of the statistics?)

In my latest "Relished W(h)ines" list below, the listed "kids' books" are the first set I've sent to this program. If you have any books you'd like to donate -- this includes used books in good condition but which your children may have outgrown -- please contact me at GalateaTen@aol.com. I'm a big believer in starting book culture early -- I think even the physical existence of books in a house, before the kids can read, is helpful for teaching young uns about the books' importance.

IN ADDITION, you also can "trade" such kids' books with me if you are interested in any of my books or those I publish, as I list here:

100 More Jokes From The Book of the Dead (John Yau & Archie Rand)

OPERA: POEMS 1981-2002 (Barry Schwabsky)

The Obedient Door (Sean Finney)

Pinoy Poetics (Ed. Nick Carbo)

THE SECRET LIVES OF PUNCTUATIONS, VOL. I (Eileen Tabios)

I Take Thee, English, For My Beloved (Eileen Tabios)

Reproductions of the Empty Flagpole (Eileen Tabios)

Menage A Trois With the 21st Century (Eileen Tabios)

Meanwhile, here's my latest list of Relished W(h)ines:

PUBLICATIONS
DISAPPOINTED PSALMS, poems by Brian Clements

MUCH LIKE YOU, SHARK, poems by Logan Ryan Smith

AND THEN SOMETHING HAPPENED, poems by Susan M. Schultz

NETS, poems by Jen Bervin

AND SO FOR YOU THERE IS NO HEARTBREAK, poem by K. Lorraine Graham

THE BOOK OF WHO ARE WAS, poems by Benjamin Hollander

COME KANAB: A LITTLE RED SONGBOOK, poems by Lance Newman

KINE(STA)SIS, poem by Carrie Hunter

THE MOVEABLE ONES, poems by John Sakkis

THE FRANK POEMS by CAConrad with German translations by Holger with assistance from Jonas Slonaker and Sigrid Mayer

ELIXIR REFUSED, a hand-painted book combining visual art and poetry by Ward Schumaker

ROXANNE SWENTZELL: EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE, art monograph edited by Ree Strange Sheck

CAFE EUROPA: LIFE AFTER COMMUNISM, journalism by Slavenka Drakulic

INTO THE WILDERNESS, novel by Sara Donati

THE SAGGY BAGGY ELEPHANT, kids' book by K. & B. Jackson, illustrated by Tenggren

THE GROUCHY LADYBUG, kids book by Eric Carle

THROW YOUR TOOTH ON THE ROOF: TOOTH TRADITIONS FROM AROUND THE WORLD, kids book by Selby B. Becker, illustrated by G. Brian Karas

BILL AND PETE GO DOWN THE NILE, kids book by Tomie de Paola

ALL I SEE IS PART OF ME, kids book by Chara M. Curtis, illustrated by Cynthia Aldrich

MAMA, DO YOU LOVE ME?, kids' book by Barbara M. Joose, illustrated by Barbara Lavallee

NATHAN'S FISHING TRIP, kids' book by Lulu Delaere

LITTLE PEA, kids book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, illustrated by Jen Corace


WINES
2003 Dutch Henry NV "Argos"
2003 Dutch Henry chardonnay Los Carneros
2005 Dutch Henry pinot noir
2006 Dutch Henry zinfandel