Poets used to come to little quaint Kamuning Bakery. In a recent Pandesal Forum organized by owner Wilson Lee Flores, we celebrated World Poetry Day and he invited a few guests, Prof./Dr. Gemino Abad and Prof.Dr. Vin Nadera.
Dr. Abad is a National Artist for Literature and it was so nice to see him share his experience in English and Creative Literature and his time in University of the Philippines.
They also had guests from Mataas na Paaralan Ng Neptali Gonzalez in Mandaluyong City, with their Prof. Cruz.
Prof./Dr. Gemino Abad says "I am overwhelmed but I'm glad to be here to share whatever things we'll be talking about. The word poem or poetry is of Greek origin, meaning to make or create. It can be generic of any creative or literary work, fiction or not. It could be a play, drama or non fiction essays. It refers to all of that. It is work of language and imagination, it's a basic creative sense. You need a certain mastery of it, but it could be from imagination, or real human experience. Reading or not, it must be done with lively imagination. When you are moved by it, you understand human experience. Have you thought about asking yourself about your sense of country? When you read a poem, you live it, one has to be moved by it. A strong sense of language and imagination is needed. Not just entertainment. I like Nick Juaquin, Francisco Arcellana, those are two great choices. The secret of youth is having Mercy in my life, she is my wife. It is very important to have only one. That is the secret."
He adds "Put the word on paper, it establishes our reality. Before shifting sands and ice age melts, our words demarcate. It defines all possibilities."
Prof.Dr. Vim Nadera says "We are here for the TULA partylist. Not running for anything. The greatest heroes in the Philippines are all makata, and very young. We forget the earliest form of poetry, which is prayer. Friars talked down on pulpits, preaching, opposite of that is pleading or harana. What's better than that is when we kneel down and pray, it's an analogy. You could be down or up there but both can be descriptive, the new ones are like that, without judgement, it's like imagism. People just describe things and objects to represent concrete ideas. Love is even not clear to a person, but if you show the heart, it's clear and easily understandable. We name them, and interpret it, it's an early form of entertainment. I like Jose Rizal, he made it powerful and opened the eyes of readers. It was read by Bonifacio which made him put up the revolution, and even became a makata. Elandro Abadilla too who changed society. The young ones like Emilio Jacinto, the Kartilya of Katipunan is an example. He's a role model, unlike the opposition now that doesn't have a face. We are looking for that right now."
He adds "We Filipinos use kantyaw, or parodies to answer back jokingly. (He sings Saranggola ni Ate and hits political and recent news figures)."
They have a book printed called "SALIMBAGAN" which has prints and poems released by Canvas.ph.
Seeing high school students take on Balagtasan exercises that morning made me realize that poetry isn't a dying art, as long as there would be generations that could teach the young ones, it would live, exist, and remain part of our existence.
Kamuning Bakery will also be having a promo tomorrow on World Poetry Day by giving out FREE coffee for those who would send original works of poetry at the story (according to Wilson Lee Flores)
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