| nagugulat pa rin ako kapag naririnig ang sariling tinig. Hindi ako sanay mabasa sa papel ang ibig sabihin. Gaya nito: Kita mo, hindi ako lumayo. Noong hapong sinabi mo: "hindi na tayo puwedeng maglaro," umuwi ako. Nagdilig ng halaman, gaya dati. Pagkatapos, pumunta ako sa gubat, inakyat ang kalumpang. Hindi ako madaling malula. Nahiga ako sa sanga at kinanta nang paulit-ulit ang "Sa Wakas" ng Eraserheads. Umuwi ako sa paglubog ng araw. Mag-uukit sana ako sa puno, pero alam mo, noon, wala talaga sa isip ko ang pagsusulat.##Isang araw, magigising ka at matatagpuan ang sariling hinahanap/ itong aking tula. Ibig mong makatiyak. Hahalughugin mo/ ang mga baul ng iyong alaalang nagnanaknak na sa anay./ At matatagpuan mo ito: nakaipit sa mga pahina ng aklat/ ni Francisco; naninilaw at halos malutong na sa pagkakatupi./ Susuyurin mo ang buong saknong, muli't muling babalikan/ ang bawat taludtod, hindi tatantanan ang bawat kataga--/ na para bang naghahanap ng sagot sa mga tanong/ na kapwa natin iniwasan. Nang una mong nabasa/ ang isinulat ko: "May rebelde saanmang bahagi ng mundo/ dahil hindi nawawalan ng nagwawala sa bawat kanto/ at nakasusulasok ang pagkabulok sa bawat sulol"--/tinitigan mo ako na para bang ibig mong mapasok/ |
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| Other Articles Edgar C. Samar: Taking a Magical Look Back Dean's Awards for the Arts 2002, School of Humanities, AdMU |
| Edgar C. Samar: Taking a Magical Look Back Ruel S. De Vera (Editor's Note: Published on page Q2 of the September 5, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. ) EDGAR "Egay" Calabia Samar is no stranger to prizes. The 23-year-old San [Pablo] City native has previously won two Palancas, among other accolades. But the young president of the writers' group Linangan ng Imahen, Retorika at Arte or LIRA is thoroughly enjoying his first prize for Filipino Poetry with what he calls his "wounded narratives." As a poet, he has always valued solitude: "The lyric sings of solitude, and so I was easily driven to it. Whenever I write, it is my attempt to recognize this need to be alone that I cannot have enough courage to fully embrace in reality." This boyish and soft-spoken Filipino teacher from the Ateneo recalls that he only began seriously writing poetry in college, inspired by the fact that everyone in the literary organization Heights wrote. And now look where he is. His winning collection, "Tayong Lumalakad Nang Matulin" (We Who Walk Fast) is actually the title of his thesis for his Masters in Filipino Literature. "My desire then was to write about woundedness, and so I went back to the wounded narratives in our myths, folk tales and legends. The image of the manananggal (witch) wouldn't leave me-the way she would hurt herself (and others) so that she could live. I decided to write about her and the others that shared her predicament: the ones that figured in our folk stories-nuno sa punso, diwata, aswang, tikbalang, mangkukulam, tiyanak, sirena, etc.-that were actually, I believe, distillations of our strongest emotions as a people." After recently earning his Master's degree, Samar is looking forward to a first book and, of course, more graceful poems about the witchraft of words and the unleashing of imaginations. Source: <http://news.inq7.net/sunday/index.php?index=1&story_id=9051> |
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| kalye kundiman is my poetic space: the site of my writing as woundedness, madness, solitude, encounters with the supernatural, and forgetting, because "exile is a kind of long insomnia." |