Spotlight On Writers
Tea Solon
- Where do you originate from?
I am from a city on an island known for its rich history, heritage, arts, music, and culture: Cebu, the Queen City of the South.
- What do you cherish most about the place you call home?
The ancient rootedness of family and the generational branching out of creativity are what I cherish most about the place I call home.
- What ignites your creativity?
A word hovering in my head while I’m walking; an image passing like a movie scene in my mind; a scent distracting me in the middle of a conversation; a song pulling me to another lifetime; a taste allowing me to lean back in tears; a brush of urgency waking me from my sleep—creativity arrives without announcement, igniting me whenever and wherever.
- Do you have a favorite word, and could you incorporate it into a poetic phrase?
Kintsugi is a favorite word that I have used in my pieces. It speaks to me in the literary and research works I am doing: in reclaiming my ancestors’ words, collaborating with family members, a form of healing, gathering, and piecing together broken histories and stories of our family, as a lasting gift to our descendants. Also, for me, kintsugi is anything that sees and values the ancient while integrating the new. Its concepts resonate with my love for nature and my heartbreak at the human-made and natural disasters happening around the world, as well as here in my home city. I want to share two pieces I wrote recently that work around the philosophy of kintsugi: (1) gabions; (2) a form of kintsugi.
GABIONS
driving around the mountains
landslides sliced lines
as if a giant tiger attacked
the slopes with its claws
tearing the timberline
deforming the face
scarring the ridge unrecognizable
the construction workers
swept the debris off
strapping wires
with gabions
to prevent further damage
as if trying to stitch
the belly of the mountains
and all these activities
drove my thoughts to
my inner terrain—
how the calamities—
his turning his gaze away
his leaving with another
chipped my summit
tore my base
shook my core
but also
how i managed
to gather my ruins
and put up stronger gabions
stitching together my parts
how every disaster
strengthens my resolve:
i stand
unmoved.
A FORM OF KINTSUGI—
pouring liquid gold
to piece shards
of a broken vase
the eroded mountain
aching silently
stitched with gabions
scabs in golden wires
- What is your pet peeve?
Noise! Ahahah! The older I get, the more I crave silence. The incessant noise pollution of the city: heavy traffic means vehicles honking; at times, the loud night karaoke of neighbors (although the city already pushes an Anti-Noise Ordinance) is simply exhausting. I feel I’m too old for these things. So, whenever possible, my partner and I go to the mountains to exhale, rest, and recover.
- How would you describe the essence of Tea Solon?
An inherently stubborn passion for learning, liberation, life, and love at my essence. I surround myself with brilliant poets and writers with whom I trust, growing and basking in their inspiration; family and friends who fuel my purpose for existing.
- Spotlight On Writers – Tea Solon - April 18, 2026
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