Influence, Favorites and I Look Up To: Poets and Their Works
Living in world of poetry is not just like a snap of fingers then you are a legit reader of poems. Some of us got amazed by pieces, imagery, author and others. Like me, I’m just interested in in this magnificent world around 2013. When I fail in my math subjects then I shopped a new course to arts college in my university particularly in literature.
Ever since, I am a typical kid in the Philippines fond of animes, internet games and stuffs also some sports (basketball and chess). Like what I’ve said I bumped with poetry and now my world is widely new like never before. There are quite amount of poets that lived and living in this world, some of them caught my attention and time to time they also inspired me to create more pieces of art. I have high gratitude to these poets so I’m going to share their works maybe to poets and to some amateur poets like me here in Steemit Community.
So here is my list to my favorite poets and their poems:
German V. Gervacio – He’s my professor way back in college. In my opinion he’s one of the poets that established a name here in my country specially in Mindanao. A man raised in Metro Manila (the capital city of the Philippines) and choose Iligan to be a place for his lovenest. Sir Gervacio gained four Palanca Awards (The most prestigious literary award in the Philippines), He’s also a playwright and fictionist. I know him personally and I have high regards for this man not just in Literature but also in real life.
So here's a a sample of his works:
No longer do we talk
About love -- Translated by Ralh Semino Galan
We have more important
Things to do than to talk
About love
You often complain
That you lack sleep
And seem exhausted
While fondling
Your hands
That have grown
Sinewy and knobby
You say.
I refuse to be defeated
Since I have slept
For only three or four hours!
If you want
We can switch places
You do my dissertation
I
Will launder and cook?
No longer do we talk
About love
You no longer iron
My clothes
I too no longer massage
Your nape and back.
No longer do we
Talk about love
Now a muzzle
On heart and mouth
No longer do
We talk
About love
The light is now dead
When I enter the room
Carefully
I will lay
On my side
But
Before I succumb
To sleep and fatigue
I will peep
At what is between us
Almost six months
Now
No longer do we talk
About
Love,
**Almost six
Months **
Raya is now,
Our little-most cherub
Who in her curving
In our very midst
Ah! is heart-
Shaped
No longer do we
Talk About love
Since we are now beside it
In our shortest sleep.
Nick Juaquin – A national artist for literature here in the Philippines. A poet, journalist, historian and fictionist. Although he is very acclaimed for his works in short-stories, one of my favorite poems is his work “The innocence of Solomon”. He died last 2004 and he wrote using a pen name Quijano de manila. One of his acclaimed work is Tatarin or “”The Summer Solstice””.
A sample of his work:
"The Innocence of Solomon"
Sheba, Sheba, open your eyes!
The apes defile the ivory temple,
the peacocks chant dark blasphemies:
but I take your body for mine to trample,
I laugh where once I bent the knees.
Yea, I take your mouth for mine to crumple,
drunk with the wisdom of your flesh.
But wisdom never was content
and flesh when ripened falls at las:
what will I have when the seasons mint
your golden breasts into golden dust?
Let me arise and follow the river
back to its source: I would bathe my bones
among the chaste rivuletsthat quiver
out of the clean primeval stones.
Yea, bathe me again in the early vision
my soul tongued forth before your mouth
made of a kiss a fierce contrition
salting the waters of my youth…
Sheba, Sheba, close my eyes!
The apes have ravished the inner temple,
the peacocks rend the sacred veil
and on the manna feast their fill-
but chaliced drowsily in your ample
arms, with each brief bliss that dies
my own deep sepulcher I seal.
Nicanor Parra – Chilean poet, born on 1914. He’s one of the considered living-legend in the world of poetry. He was a school teacher way back then. He is the "anti-poet" due to his distaste to traditional poetry. Up until now I still use his style in some of my works. Parra was awarded with Cervantes Prize, the most prestigious award in literature in Spanish-speaking world.
A sample of his works:
Young Poets translated by Miller Williams
Write as you will
In whatever style you like
Too much blood has run under the bridge
To go on believing
That only one road is right.
In poetry everything is permitted.
With only this condition of course,
You have to improve the blank page.
Jose P. Rizal – “The Great Malayan” He is the most important of Philippine History. Jack-of-all-traits in literature but in greatest sense. His famous works are Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo these great pieces of art are novels that tackled the oppression of Spaniards to Filipinos also it attacked the not-so-good aspects of Filipino Culture. Nonetheless this novels are the blueprint of Philippine Independence for they ignite the burning flame of patriotism of our forefathers. Actually we have a subject in college that deals with his life.
A sample of his works:
"A Tribute To My Town"
When I remember the days
that saw my early childhood
spent on the green shores
of a murmurous lagoon;
when I remember the coolness,
delicious and refreshing,
that on my face I felt
as I heard Favonius croon;
when I behold the white lily
swell to the wind’s impulsion,
and that tempestuous element
meekly asleep on the sand;
when I inhale the dear
intoxicating essence
the flowers exude when dawn
is smiling on the land;
sadly, sadly I recall
your visage, precious childhood,
which an affectionate mother
made beautiful and bright;
I recall a simple town,
my comfort, joy and cradle,
beside a balmy lake,
the seat of my delight.
Ah, yes, my awkward foot
explored your sombre woodlands,
and on the banks of your rivers
in frolic I took part.
I prayed in your rustic temple,
a child, with a child’s devotion;
and your unsullied breeze
exhilarated my heart.
The Creator I saw in the grandeur
of your age-old forests;
upon your bosom, sorrows
were ever unknown to me;
while at your azure skies
I gazed, neither love nor tenderness
failed me, for in nature
lay my felicity.
Tender childhood, beautiful town,
rich fountain of rejoicing
and of harmonious music
that drove away all pain:
return to this heart of mine,
return my gracious hours,
return as the birds return
when flowers spring again!
But O goodbye! May the Spirit
of Good, a loving gift-giver,
keep watch eternally over
your peace, your joy, your sleep!
For you, my fervent pryers;
for you, my constant desire
to learn; and I pray heaven
your innocence to keep!
Daniel Pendergraft – If you’re a reader in poetry section in Steemit there’s a huge percent that you are familiar with his works. Most of us know him as @d-pend. I really don’t know about this poet and his life. One thing I like this poet is his styles and his choice of words because one thing that is peculiar about traditional poetry or even poetry is the poet’s capability to harness the words that is essential for his/her piece. And this guy just nailed it.
A Sample of his works:
huddling around
pinkfire, grinning—
Or flourish in their
colored brigade.
Spiraling into the
Bleakness of forever
Through the conduit of
The feverish host that
Breaks bread with strangers.
Threaded with diamond, embalmed with
Amber and diatomaceous earth shimmering
In the lamplight of extraterrestrial
Vision, enhanced by strange fruits
Or strange lights which pulsate
Of their own accord into the
Trailoff that confuses the
Soul of the listener,
That hypnotizes the
Eyes of the lover
With unrecitable
Spells.
Penta
Quatrr
Triform
Polarize
Wholeness
Capacitous
Increase of
Humanity's
Intellect
Through
Stars'
Spit
References:
https://www.facebook.com/notes/ralph-semino-gal%C3%A1n/no-longer-do-we-talk-about-love/985379764813191?comment_id=985586574792510&offset=0&total_comments=8¬if_t=note_reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicanor_Parra
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Summer_Solstice
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Joaquin
https://steemit.com/@d-pend
https://www.poemhunter.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Rizal
(https://steemit.com/poetry/@d-pend/starspitshine#@d-pend/re-louielowa-re-d-pend-starspitshine-20171026t045952955z)