An author from the UST Publishing House (USTPH) challenged young writers to use everyday words to create new meanings in poetry, in a book discussion at Tweedle Book Cafe in Quezon City on Saturday.
Poet Allan Popa stressed that poetry does not require to use highfalutin words and a “vast arsenal of vocabulary.”
“Poetry does not mean that you are supposed to use, [for instance], a metaphor within the line. You can write in the plainest way and [transform] an entire experience as a metaphor for something big,” Popa said.
“[In poetry], use the simplest word in a different way. You need to manipulate the language to make sense out of it. The language of poetry is still the words you use everyday,” he added.
Popa is the author of the poetry collection “Incision,” published in 2016 by the USTPH.
He won the National Book Awards for Poetry in 2001 with his book “Morpo: Mga Pagsasanaysay sa Tula.”
The book discussion was hosted by the Pinoy Reads Pinoy Books, an organization that promotes Filipino authors.
