Thursday 18 July 2013

What Is A Poem?

an essay by Roger B Rueda

I started writing a poem when I was all of seventeen. Actually, I tried writing poems when I was all of thirteen, but according to my poetry mentor, Dr Leoncio Deriada, they were not poems, they were rubbish. My poems rhymed perfectly and every line of them was flawlessly cut. How come they were not poems, I asked myself. How come those poems in Home Life, where Dr Deriada was the poetry editor, had been published, I thought. Mine sounded like of Shakespeare. Possibly Dr Deriada just didn’t like me, I began to justify the rejection. The thing I wanted to avoid was my piece might be discussed in his monthly column in Home Life. I hated criticism then and I wouldn’t have known what to do if he had picked my piece.

One day, when I was at university, I received a letter from Dr Deriada. He wanted me to see him. The next day, I met him at the Sentro ng Wikang Filipino. He looked simple yet witty. When he started to speak, I fell in love with his mind. Dr Deriada is a brilliant teacher. It was he who has made me think more cogently and realistically.

‘Roger, a poem suggests; it never states.’ He then took a piece of paper and wrote what he had just told me. ‘Have you read the poem The Golf Links?’ he asked me. ‘No, sir,’ I honestly told him. ‘It is by Sarah Cleghorn,’ he continued.  He wrote the poem on the same paper he had taken out. The poem was so short, I noticed. ‘It is so short, but it is a poem. And that is how a poem should be written,’ the old man said to me. I felt lost.  My receptiveness was very poor at that time. When I went home, I began to ruminate on it. Then all of a sudden I was afraid to write a poem because what I had written were not poems but rubbish. What I did was I catalogued the words in line fragments and arranged them like those of a poem. I loved writing abstruse ideas, something nobody can understand. All I thought that the more my reader couldn’t understand my poem, the better poet I would be.

The next week I started to write a simple poem, The Golf Links as my inspiration. The poem is titled Angels in the Street: abandoned by their gods/ these little angels/ walk and beg/ their wings are gone/ their clothes so white/ have turned black/ they will grow up/ into demons. Dr Deriada edited the poem. He pruned some long lines until the poem became very short. ‘This is how your poem should look like,’ he advised me. After two months, my poem appeared in Home Life, yet I couldn’t understand what a poem really is. I wrote and wrote, which he always advised me when I met him. I felt good, seeing my poems published in Home Life.

In 1997, I had my poems published in Panorama. I gradually weaned myself off seeing Dr Deriada on to editing my own writing. In 2000, he anthologised my poems in Mantala, a publication published by NCCA. In 2002, I was named Fellow for Poetry to the 41st UP National Writers Workshop.

So what is a poem? Now it’s 2013 and I guess for years of searching for its meaning and importance, I’m ready to tell tenderfoots what I have discovered.

A poem is The Golf Links by Sarah Cleghorn: ‘The golf links lie near the mill/That almost every day/The labouring children can look out/And see the men at play.

A poem could also be my poem Dagmayhood: Water, earth, or rays are superfluous to it./Deep down in the core, come hell/ or high water,  something pushes,/then parched curls of the corm tingles,/and that something starts to lay out,/makes space for a sprout to shift up/ through all the coats that have moulded/ bit by bit, one about the other,/for a spell long past remembering,/and set off the outer skin  dry russet,/ to tore asunder and chip off. /Inside, the core kips - up to that instant, /unidentified, cryptic, when it stirs, rouses,/calls on the root and sends /new shoots  skyward headed for the glow.

A poem could also be my other poem Mangoes: Don’t pluck a stalk of green mangoes /from the tree –/then I was only ill once/ and that came /of eating unripe mangoes./They were acrid /even with honey./Always choose/firm, but ripe mangoes./Wait about –/they’ll fall when they become fully grown.

A poem is Airs Poetica by Denver Ejem Torres: A poem is that thing behind a fly./ That thing here I will explore/ because it is the desire of the groins/ of my mind. That thing excites,/ charms, invites. It is beautiful/ whether it's up in the air/ or sleeping on a brown branch./ A poem indeed it is if it is/ as big, bold and brave/ as the Philippine Serpent Eagle/ that stands on its own/ and goes beyond its black nest./ Well, if the Black Shama/ can sing a haiku, I may like it too./ A poem shall make me want to steal it/ and give me the desire to desire./ It shall be covetable,/ like a banana to a bird./ A poem must fly me/ beyond grasslands and chaparrals./ It has to have a border,/a breakable, penetrable border./ A poem, more importantly,/ must convince and can make/ a man say yes to the offer:/ If I write you this poem, /will you open your fly?    

A poem is Water (for B.) by Danton Remoto: For you, my lover, I will be like water./ I will be Lock Lomond flowing/ in loneliness from Ardlui to Arden./ I will be the Falls of Dochart hurling itself/ down the hills of Breadalbane,/ the rocks rumbling with my cascading force/ I will be the rain, slanting/ over Stirling in needles tiny as pores./ I will be snowflakes drifting/ From the Orkney to the Isle of Skye,/ falling in silent fury, as if focusing themselves/ in the cold eye of memory./ For you, my lover, I will be like water.

Thus, a poem makes claims on our lives or enacts historical, social, literary, and spiritual awareness, while remaining grounded in the multiple facets of our lives.

A poem is something that defamiliarises the well-known. It is taut and elegant in its unfolding, yet not overwrought or overtly inventive.

A poem delves into underexplored areas or risks saying the unsayable. A poem exhibits rich moments of figuration. A poem is conscious of rhythm and meaning.

For years, I’ve realised that poetry is a place of interconnection, where mind and body, self and other, innermost and exterior, may come across. And so I see poetry not as an endeavour to truthfully portray an involvement already known but as the making of a new familiarity that presses into some place not yet recognised. I write poems when I am mystified, stimulated, suffering, questioning, uncentred. The poem tries to answer that mystification, to expand the periphery of what I can know and understand; in that long-drawn-out understanding what was shimmering at the fringe can now come into the fundamental. A good poem is fairly like a volcanic islet. It produces new landscape of my depth.

One time, it just came as lightning and it lit it up in my mind. I then began to think that a poem is meant to be shared, discussed, misunderstood or understood, but always contemplated. Not by the educated or uneducated, or the high or the low, but by the reader existing as a contemplative, thoughtful being.

As a poet, I believe that poems deimpossibilise human liberty by allowing the alchemical fire of unheard-of imageries melt the walls of reified realisation, in so doing at one hit obliterating the captivity of the mind and raising the dangers in the struggle to resolve the ambiguity between ordinary life and the marvellous.

So what is a poem? I hope you’ve got the answer. I know it is not easy, but try reading a lot of poems and writing one, and trying means not once – it could be one hundred times.



Wednesday 17 July 2013

Some New Words for July 2013

an essay by Roger B Rueda

Words are like a living creature, capable of developing, moving, spreading, and influencing the world in many ways, directly and indirectly through others. They have power, energy, and influences. They create peace and inspiration in our lives. They can encourage or discourage, slander or uplift, so we need to use them wisely. We need to keep them as pets in the home of our mind. We need to love them and know the every detail of their gist and nuance.

As I think about the power of the word to enflame and divide, to calm and connect, or to make and effect change, I’m ever more careful about what I say and how I listen to the words around me.

As a writer, I see the impact of words I choose on the world around me and my own favouritisms, predispositions, and discriminating consideration of the words I hear.

Lately, I have found the word ‘accubation.’ It is the practice of eating or drinking while lying down. I love eating bread while lying especially in the morning after waking up, so I think I can express myself with the word. I don’t know  why  I’m getting lazy these days. I love eating while lying down. Possibly, because of my chikungunya. Do I have? Hahaha

When I’m not satisfied with my new haircut I cut my hair after I get home. Because of this, I can be considered as an autotonsorialist, a person who cuts his own hair. Such a pretty word, right? Being a wordie, I think it is. I’ve heard some haircutters are autotonsorialists.

In Manila when I was all of six, our neighbour gave us frog. I wanted to eat it, but my grandmother stopped me. Now I wonder how frog tastes. I’ve learned that our neighbour is an Ilocano, and most Ilocanos are batrachophagous.  They really love eating frog.

A person has cagamosis if she has an unhappy marriage. So if she divorces him and gets married to another person, that marriage is called digamy. If her spouse dies, and she gets married again, such marriage is also called digamy.

If teachers hit their students, they can be sued these days. Hitting students is called dippoldism. Psychologically, it isn’t good for children. Traditional teaching methods sometimes only succeeded in putting students off learning. It can traumatise children. Teachers who did it must have gone insane.

One who fakes a smile, as on television is called eccedentesiast. Most Kapuso stars are good at this. Dennis Trillo has a very good skill in it. Carla Abellana, too. I think soaps need more eccedentesiasts for the sake of the audience, who are getting more fastidious about good acting. Our friends or colleagues who tend to be reluctant when it comes to displaying genuine emotion are also called eccedentesiasts.

We call the state of being stuffed with food (overeating) as farctate. I hate it because I don’t feel good when I’m too full, especially when I'm stuffed to the gills. It is an unhealthy habit I need to avoid. Fiestas, parties, holidays are the perfect season for farctate dinners and whatnot.

An act of being likely to make a mistake is called hamartithia. This is common when we are new to something. It is sometimes inevitable, but we need it to learn, to be the best. Last May, most of our elected senators are political neophytes and they will likely to make a  hamartithia.

One who sticks obstinately and wrongly to his old ways is called mumpsimus. But I think mumpsimuses are no longer common these days. Most friends I have are stylish. I got it from Henry VIII: 'I see and hear daily that you of the Clergy preach one against another, teach one contrary to another, inveigh one against another without charity or discretion. Some be too stiff in their old mumpsimus, others be too busy and curious in their new sumpsimus. Thus all men almost be in variety and discord.'

A nelipot is someone who walks without shoes. When I was young, I tried to be a nelipot. It was not easy. I needed feet that had hardened to endure stones on the road. In the Bible, most people were a nelipot, especially Jesus. Walking barefoot strengthens and stretches the muscles, tendons, and ligaments in your feet, ankles and calves.

Who do you see first after leaving your house? That person you see first is a qualtagh. Of course, my mum is the first person I see when I leave home. She is there to remind me to pray.  She is my qualtagh for my spiritual life. It is pronounced, by the way, as [kwol-tog]. It is from a form of Gaelic known as Manx.  It is spoken on the Isle of Man, and though it has nearly vanished in spoken usage, it is a well-documented word and there is an effort to revive its usage.  Literally the word ‘qualtagh’ means ‘first foot,’  as in the first person to set foot in the house on New Year’s Day, or the first person one met when they set foot outside on New Year’s Day.  It may also be used to refer to the first person a woman encounters after being confined to her house following the birth of a child.

Have you tried xerophagy? It is a diet of bread and water. Last night I tried it. I bought some pandesal from Pan de Manila. I love their pandesal because it is so soft and a bit sweet. I got so hungry the whole night I needed to wake up early to eat my breakfast though I usually don’t eat breakfast. In the early Christian Church, xerophagy meant eating food cooked in water and salt during Lent. Xerophagy has also been practised in prison and in the military as a form of punishment.

I hope you’ve liked the words I’ve picked for you.



Tuesday 16 July 2013

Only Blinkered People Recoil at Gays

an essay by Roger B Rueda

I was carrying my bag of groceries through to the market exit door when a preaching attracted my attention. It was of a religious sect whose pastor perhaps has poor education, someone who started to preach, yet his humanity, sagacity, and sensitivity are not enough. His voice was blaring from somewhere close. It was late afternoon, so everyone was rushed off his feet. I know this is the time most pastors are busiest, too.

He was preaching a sermon on gays. He was condemning gays for who they are as if gays had a choice or it had been their choice to be one.  His voice was terribly derisive. He sounded like a devil. His existence contained many levels of paradox, I thought.

I came in the jeepney parked before the market.  Two passengers shifted a little as I was meaning to sit down. The senseless pastor continued his preaching. I laid my groceries behind my shins. Then I fished out some coins from my bag. ‘Bayad,’ I called out. Then I looked around. One woman was looking at nowhere with her eyebrows raised questioningly. One woman grinned, delighted at what she was hearing. I looked sullenly at everyone.

One woman beside me opened a talk. ‘So what if someone is a gay,’ she looked at me. Well, at least I got an ally, someone who does not have a blinkered view of gays. I smiled at her and got ready to listen. She continued talking to me and we discussed a lot of things about gays.

‘I need to get off now. Bye,’ I told her. ‘Sa lugar lang.’ The jeepney pulled over. I hurried along the highway, a bit upset. The preacher was still on my mind, I could still hear the echo of his voice. What hurt most was his hidebound view, the bigotry. I tried to temper my emotion, but I couldn’t.

Finally, I got home. I pulled over a chair at table in the kitchen and asked my mum to make me ginger tea. Sipping at the ginger tea, my anger faded away.

***
This year, I have had one student who is very homophobic. I was shocked to know that he was angry with me when I told him that some male models in a magazine were gays.  He dropped my class the next day.

I’m gay, and he knew that. But, well, never did I harass any student I have had. And I couldn’t understand his action. Did he drop my class because he was offended by what I had told him or because I am gay. If he had been offended by what I had told him, I must say that he was too defensive.  If because I’m gay, well, I should have told him that if he wanted a perfect straight teacher, he should try to look for a porter (kargador). What I mean is if someone wants to have a straight ESL teacher, I think he is not serious about his studies.

Anyway, how can I change bigots? Being one is also inborn.

***

Well, of late, I have had much cogitation on gayness. I have tried to think slowly, weighing everything. But it seemed I couldn’t understand how gayness becomes a sin when it is biological and psychological.

For me, condemning homosexuality is discrimination since it is passing judgement on someone that has nothing to do with their personality. Condemning homosexuality is practically the same as condemning someone for being black, a female, short, or old. None of those qualities dictate who that person is as a human being. They are exterior traits. Homosexuality is not something people decide to be. Given the undesirable stigma that most of society places on gays and lesbians, why would anyone choose to be a homosexual? Consequently, being a homosexual is something someone is born with and they should not be condemned for. People just need to mind their own business and focus on their own issues, because no one is perfect.

Passing judgement on something that one is born with is one-sided, indefensible and should not come about. We are not Palaeolithic men anymore.

To those who say it is unusual, homosexuality occurs in more than a hundred species of animals, and of course, while we are not animals, we still don't decide who to love. That goes for anyone in any sexual orientation.

To say it is against God, where is his spiritual faith? How does he know God hates gay people? God might have changed his mind if he did before. That pastor doesn't know because God never sent him a reminder, did he? Similarly, if he’s really that bothered, let God handle it, if he has that much faith in him to sort people he hates out. He needs also to consider that religious interpretations won't always match those of someone else.  I think that pastor has to study more theology, and perhaps psychology.

Homosexuals are people, we are not a sub-species of human beings, and discriminating against us would be like being bigoted against someone for their colour of their skin, or their hair, or for being born a certain sex. It's basic horse sense to treat people civilly.

Derision there aside, yes, condemning homosexuality is discriminatory and should be treated as such.




Saturday 13 July 2013

Internationalising the Philippines

an essay by Roger B Rueda

The Philippines isn’t poor. In fact, it is a very rich country as our natural resources are boundless and bountiful. Only the minds of some are as poor as a vagrant, lacklustre and unproductive. That’s why Taiwan as a country doesn’t respect us. Perhaps, the Taiwanese think we are an inferior people as what comes out of this country is only bad news about our corrupt politicians, the demolition of houses in the slums, the insurgence and terrorism in Mindanao. Our media has been given much hegemony to be against the government, so its role to internationalise the country in promoting its good side has become obscure, and our government has failed to internationalise the Philippines and its people in Taiwan. See now how they treat our countrymen in their country? They unfairly treat them worse.  They reproach all Filipinos for one mistake, which in the real sense cannot be charged with to the whole country. This shows how parochial Taiwan is. Judging a country on one mistake and involving the whole people as culprits point towards how contemptible they are. Their attitude can be described as petty.

Internationalising our country can provide it with a common sense of purpose and national pride, not to mention a higher standard of living. It makes people in other countries aware of our culture, heritage, lifestyle, tourism, and values. For one, these people’s choices are informed by how familiar they are with our country and whether they have visited it or not.

Every time these people make a decision informed by an association with our country, it creates the future of our country.  When you multiply that with billions of people around the world every year, it can create waves that dictate the shape of our lives for decades to come. Thus, internationalising our country is a must now. Being looked down on by Taiwan is an obvious truth that our government has failed to internationalise our country in Taiwan before. It is, however, a signal that we need to internationalise our country comprehensively not only in Taiwan but also in all countries around the world. The Chinese, Malaysian, Vietnamese, Indonesian, and Thai have to be informed about our best people, our companies, our best cities and places, our best books, our best universities, our best arts, our best festivals and events.

Internationalising our country is internationalising our citizenry as this plays a huge role in the establishment and maintenance of a cohesive national identity, and as such, a population’s strength in education, productivity, health, and happiness undoubtedly impacts its progress. For one, human capital identifies the competencies, knowledge, and values underpinning a nation’s vision.

Filipino music, films, food, soaps, and writings have to be found in every corner of the globe. It’s part of internationalising our country. It’s part of promoting our culture and heritage. It promotes a wider knowledge of the Philippines.

Our books have to be translated into different languages. The mindscapes of every Filipino have to be circulated the world over. We have a lot of best minds in the Philippines. Our literature is rich and wide-ranging. We have F Sionil Jose, Gemino Abad, Merlie Alunan, Leoncio Deriada, Sarge Lacuesta, Dean Francis Alfar, Ian Casocot, Joel Toledo, Jaime An Lim, Cecilia Brainard, Butch Dalisay, Danton Remoto amongst others.

Our people speak English aside from being multilingual, so internationalising our country is plain sailing. We have colonised English since then and we can use it to communicate effectively with the international community. For one, it is essential for the Philippines to win the understanding of the international community to gain an advantage.

We need to promote our military in other countries. Promoting our military in other countries means modernising it and striving to make it stronger if not the strongest. We need to tell the world how our military especially in southern Philippines does its job to protect our country from insurgence and terrorism. This will tell the world how Filipinos and their government value peace and freedom and how they protect human rights. A lot of our soldiers die protecting innocent civilians because the Philippines is not a violent country, so they wage war against these bad elements. To Filipinos, life is very important and they value it.

Tourism is a vital and ever-growing aspect of the Philippine economy, with its historical value and geographical assets which can appeal to tourists from around the world. Thus, we need to internationalise our country in the world that it’s more fun in the Philippines. Through our tourism and heritage, our government can build and strengthen links with other countries.

Teaching all OFWs the best of the Philippines before they leave the country is internationalising our country. Our OFWs should spread good and beautiful stories of our country. Every Filipino, for one, has stories that should be handed down to people they meet abroad. They should experience our country through our stories. Our OFWs (or even Filipinos studying abroad)  should be given brochures, magazines, photographs, videos, and books about our country before they go abroad to work (or to study). When they share them with their friends, they subtly internationalise our country.

Soon when our country is recognised as a place where people are free to live openly, where the rule of law is respected and upheld, where businesses can thrive and institutions are trusted, its image is positioned to grow and prosper, and the only means is internationalising it. Thus, internationalising our country will mean higher wage opportunity at home. When our government internationalises our country, it has to strive to make everything in it better, for internationalising our country means building a good and respected brand for our country.

Internationalising our country helps other countries understand what we are as a country, know us better, and respect every Filipino who visits and works in their countries. The quality and impact of our country the way we internationalise it determine how tourists, investors, and global citizens judge the country we call home – and what are behind it.

Tuesday 9 July 2013

Sleeplessness

a poem by Roger B Rueda

In bed, I’m not lured by sleep
to its home,
the dreamland –
my imagination is like a kite:
I fly it at the end
of my mind.
By the clock
on the wall, it’s 5.52 AM.
Sleep is drawing near,
smiling and waving,
its hugs seductively
warm and easy.
Should I yield to its
sweet caress?
Should I visit
the dreamland
at dawn?
Or should I displease sleep
by pouring a generous
measure of hot coffee into it?





Friday 5 July 2013

Iloilo State University of Science and Technology (ISUST)

[HISTORY] The Iloilo State University of Science and Technology is a government research university located at 21 JT Bretana Street, Ilaya Poblacion, Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo. It was established on 16 June 1947 as Barotac Nuevo Junior High School, which was opened for the first and second year. It held its first commencement exercises on 25 March 1949. On 22 June 1957, it was converted into Central Iloilo National School of Fisheries (CINSOF) by virtue of RA 1925. On 19 June 1961, it was renamed Iloilo National School of Fisheries (INSOF) and, on 20 June 1963, it was converted into Iloilo Regional School of Fisheries (IRSOF) by virtue of RA 3521. On 21 August 1978, then President Ferdinand E Marcos signed PD 1523 converting IRSOF into Iloilo State College of Fisheries (ISCOF). On 22 August 2000, RA 8760 and CHED Memorandum Nos. 27 and 27-A integrated CHED-Supervised Institutions (CSIs) of Barotac Nuevo, Dingle, Dumangas, and San Enrique, Iloilo into the system. On 11 June 2013, President Benigno S Aquino III signed RA 10604 converting Iloilo State College of Fisheries into Iloilo State University of Science and Technology.

[MANDATE] It is mandated to provide advanced education, higher technological, professional instruction and training in fisheries technology, arts and sciences, education, industrial technology, engineering, aquaculture, seaweed farming, and other related fields of study relevant to national development.It undertakes research, extension services and production activities in support of the development of the Iloilo Province and provide progressive leadership in its areas of specialisation.

[COLLEGES/OFFERINGS] ISUST consists of four colleges that provide instruction in basic education all the way up to the post-graduate levels. In the undergraduate and graduate levels, its covered disciplines include the Computer Studies, Education, Fisheries, HRM, Marine Biology, Nautical Studies, and Tourism. Its School of Graduate Studies offers Master in Instructional Leadership (English, Social Science, Science, and Mathematics), Master in Local Governance, Master of Arts in Educational Management, Master in Fisheries Technology, Doctor of Rural Development, Doctor of Fisheries Technology, and Doctor of Philosophy (Educational Technology).

[FOUNDER] Dr Ferjenel Biron, a Baractanoan himself, is the Founding Father of the University under RA 10604. Soon the University main campus will be transferred to ISUST at Ilaya Poblacion (ISUST-IP) at 21 JT Bretana Street, yet the ISUST at Tiwi will remain the biggest campus of the ISUST System.

[CAMPUSES] ISUST has other campuses: the Iloilo State University of Science and Technology at San Matias in Dingle (ISUST-SM), the Iloilo State University of Science and Technology at Baras in Dumangas (ISUST-B), and the Iloilo State University of Science and Technology at Garrido in San Enrique (ISUST-G) - all in Iloilo, West Visayas, Philippines.






Thursday 4 July 2013

On My Way Home

a poem by Roger B Rueda

The streets were wedged solid with the chaos
of poorly regulated parking
and near-constant traffic gridlock.
I was on a CPU jeepney.
By the McDonald’s clock,
it was almost six.
Bored stiff, I turned my head
to the garden
in Bonifacio Drive.
There I saw a little sparrow
picking up some grasses,
its dinner.
It was alert to the danger,
watching the passersby.
It had as if a perky,
independent spirit.
Some children were
crossing the street
carrying their McDonald’s
takeaways.
The sparrow turned tail and fled.
Then the gridlock was over and  it rained!