I’ve been writing poems since I was 11 or 12 years old and that has become a therapy during my awkward teenage stage when I couldn’t quite figure out what I want in my life.
I had issues then which I viewed as the biggest problems in the world. I didn’t care about poverty and sanitation in Africa or the war in the Middle East. The hell I care? They do not directly affect me.
Or so I thought.
Anyone of us who have gone through puberty knows that those years feel like walking on a floor board desperately trying to be quiet but the squeaking sound teases you in every step and you’re so afraid people will wake up from the noise.
In all the uncertainties brought about by my high school years, I turned to writing as my refuge.
Poetry, to be exact.
I wish I could go home to our house in Leyte to unearth those Hello Kitty notebooks where I wrote my poems in blue/black ink. All handwritten… we didn’t have a computer in the house and it was financially straining to rent one on a daily basis with my meager daily allowance.
I continued writing poems in college and then after college, I only wrote poems depending on mood and time. I was on the verge of letting the art form go.
It was late last year when I saw the announcement on Facebook posted by Mikki Roque (whom I know from my college years as the daughter of former University of the Philippines Cebu College Humanities Department chairperson Karl Roque) inviting artists to join the Pundok Kawhaag Napulo’g Pito exhibit.
Literary artists/poets were invited to submit their works and then their poems will be paired with visuals artists.
I sent two poems: Betania and Ayaw na.
To my recall, Betania was written in 2011 during a fieldwork in Southern Leyte while coming to terms with a break up from a man whom I thought I will spend the rest of my life with.
I had an overwhelming feeling of peace when I wrote this English poem. The feeling brought me back to a retreat house of the same name where I faced an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary and asked her to guide me to the direction of the person who will love me and whom I will also love in return.
Ayaw Na (No More) is written in the Binisayang Sugbuanon language and was the most recent poem I have written.
This is a furious poem. It’s filled with regret, bitterness and disappointment mirroring my pent-up emotions against one man who abandoned my family in the most trying times. It took me nine years to write this poem because it is difficult to be naked in the eyes of the public. I cried in a plenary several times before but I’ve never been publicly angry. Or at least, there are moments of fit and anger that I can recall. This poem took my anger to a level I never expected I would be in. This is a part of me that you can’t see when I do storytelling sessions or when I host perky-happy events.
I made a conscious decision not to get in touch with the visual artists who are interpreting my poems because I want to be surprised on the night of March 22. It’ll be a visual feast to see my poems translated into art forms.
Mikki asked me to host the opening of the exhibit on Wednesday and I’m happy to announce that I accepted the invitation. This is going to be the second time I’m hosting an art exhibit opening so anyone who happens to read this post who is attending the event on March 22 at the Jose T. Joya Gallery of the University of the Philippines Cebu College… please bear with me.
It’s going to be my first time to open two of my works in an exhibit so I’m pretty ecstatic about it. It feels like the first time I submitted an article for newspaper publication: I’m giddy, nervous and excited. It’s also going to be my first time to visit my alma mater UP Cebu after quite a few years of not spending moments with good old dear Oble.
The exhibit will run from March 22 to April 12, 2017 by the way so you have ample time to visit us.
If you would be so kind to show us some love and drop by UP Cebu for our exhibit, I would be jumping for joy for your support and thoughtfullness.
