Rereading this book made me realize that Isabela Banzon has never held a booksigning in the Philippines. This influential poetry collection of hers is something I cherish and will never let go. She is mostly known for her love poems, some of which use different languages to capture what she wants to say, but her poems about Filipinos in the growing world are just as accurate in depiction. There is fondness for a lover here as well as fondness for the Philippines. Banzon can speak and long about a lover as well as speak and long for her nation. There is agility in the way the images and personifications here move from personal affairs to political concerns, and that’s perhaps because she believes that Filipinos hold romance with the same regard as nationalism. If a person claims to love a Filipino, they are loving that Filipino’s identity.