Literary

FOR DEPARTMENT of Humanities chair Dr. Joyce Arriola, her romance with “postmodern filming” has long been spent.

“I realized that when you are constantly working on a project, it assumes a personality so overwhelming that one day, you simply want to move on,” she said.

BY PITTING their writings with the other arts–interpretative watercolor and oil paintings to sprawling installations of fashion design and digitally-produced artworks, creative writers have proven that they know a lot more than just poetry.

MANILA could have been a dream city in the early 20th century, with its tree-lined boulevards devoid of traffic, its huge houses with gardens of dama de noche, rosal, gumamela, and makahiya, and its sunsets of “purple, orange, (and) vermilion” unmatched by any city in the world.

EVEN after Filipino scholar Luzviminda Francisco made a thorough documentation of the Philippine-American War in her book, The End of an Illusion (London, 1973,) little attention either from Filipinos or Americans was given to what was considered the “First Vietnam.”

EVEN poetic license has rules to keep.

Poetry giants Ophelia Dimalanta, Cirilo Bautista and Michael Coroza discussed guidelines on the art of poetry with literature professors in the University in a two-day seminar-workshop titled “A Call for Creativity” last Nov. 23 and 24 at the Faculty of Arts and Letters.

“Poetry is the half-constructed fabric of the imagination,” said Dimalanta, director of the Center for Creative Writing and Studies (CCWS). ”It is a therapy, a release of the writer’s emotions.”

The sky was turning into a deep blue shade when Noel and the other boys of the Sto. Niño Orphanage set out to sing Christmas carols. It had been their tradition to carol around the neighborhood during Christmas Eve. Armed with bottle-cap tambourines and milk-can drums covered with plastic, the six and seven-year old boys visited homes adorned with bright lights and shimmering lanterns.

MODERN technology, freedom of speech and political repression were the three compelling issues discussed during the national conference of the Philippine Center of the International PEN with the theme “The Ethics of Novel Writing.”

The PEN Conference held last Nov. 25 at the Thomas Aquinas Research Complex Auditorium was attended by prominent writers such as 2006 Ramon Magsaysay laurete Eugenia Duran-Apostol and National Artists Bienvenido Lumbera and F. Sionil Jose, who founded the Philippine chapter of PEN.

SO YOU want to know what happened to her, don’t you? Why this room had never been occupied for years? Well, the last girl who lived here was Rinna, and in the beginning everyone thought of her as nuts, always complaining of flowers and all.

PERSONAL essays tend to be subjective, but for award-winning writer Kerima Polotan, they can be avenues for the plain and simple truth.

Polotan’s third collection of essays, The True and the Plain (University of the Philippines Press, 2005), a 2006 National Book Award finalist for essay, collects her published works from the early ‘70s to the present.

AKING Ina,

Sa isandaa’t limampung taludtod

Ng alay kong dasal,

Dinggin mo ang hikbi

Ng aking kaloobang

Sa sulirani’y naghihingalo

Gaya ng upos

Ng isang kandila.

Sa bawat paghigpit

Ng aking kalyadong daliri

Sa kuwintas kong

Krus at butil,

Dama ko ang pag-asang

May bubulong at tutugon

Sa paulit-ulit kong daing.

Isa akong bulag na ‘di makakita,

At manhid na hindi makadama