Slip of the Pen

I still have a hangover from last Tuesday’s ‘celebration’. It was a celebration, all right — a fête to a dozen or so young poets who survived six months of one badass poetry clinic. (I mean that in a good way.) The night bore witness to free-flowing poetry, applause, Kodak moments, and of course, booze.

To say that I heaved a sigh of relief after the event would be an understatement; sigh is too small a word. Its Tagalog counterpart, buntong-hininga is more apt — a microcosm of rising expectations, of a build-up toward the climax, of keeping your breath in, then suddenly, a release.

Enough words. Enjoy these pictures of the LIRA Fellows’ Night 2007, courtesy of Fellows JC Sola and Karla Cachola, and the person most-referenced to in my blogs (hehe), Ia. It goes without saying: click to enlarge.

From left to right: Ia, batch president Pau Hernando, Christine Magpile practicing on the piano, and yours truly testing the mic. (And posing for a photo op as well.)

Conspiracy Bar’s hallowed stage, ready for another night of verses.

JC, Pau, and I preparing for the program. The small, in-your-face stage helped ease some of the jitters.
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The journey that began half a year ago is ending on a night of metaphors and imagery.

Awww.

To translate the original invitation in Tagalog:

The members and this year’s fellows of the Linangan sa Imahen, Retorika at Anyo (LIRA) invite everyone to the celebration of its 22nd anniversary on December 11, 2007 in Conspiracy Bar, Visayas Avenue, Quezon City. LIRA is an organization of poets fervent in writing in the Filipino language.

The celebration will feature the launch of the SIDHAY literary folio of the LIRA Fellows Batch 2007. This collection includes several of the poems written by each Fellow after the lectures and workshops which started last June 2006. Let yourself be swept away by the verses of: Christa De La Cruz, Guia De Leon, Rogerick Fontanilla Fernandez, Pau Hernando, Kel Juan, Phillip Kimpo Jr., Christine Magpile, Alev Maniago, John Montoya, Por Requinto, and JC Sola.

A preview of the folio:

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Earlier this day, I got the chance to guest in a radio show along with two of my LIRA co-fellows, Pau Hernando and Guia de Leon. Nothing grand an event — there are thousands of people hosting a radio show around the globe at this very second, for example — but still a notable experience. Well, every first-time experience should be.

We came into the PIA Building expecting to zip in for around 15 minutes, promote our upcoming LIRA Fellows’ Night (more on that later), rattle off a few poems, and zip out. Instead, we found ourselves being the ‘main guests’ (is there such a term?) for today’s Youthlinks program at DZSR (918 Khz; the online streaming version can be found here). We stayed for the show’s full hour-long duration.

We felt at ease with the show’s great staff, which includes co-hosts Allan Elman, Rommel Brillantes, and Jacky Chan (yes that’s his first name; I failed to catch his surname). After talking a bit about our personal backgrounds, the LIRA fellowship process, and workshop details, each of us three was given the time to read two poems. I chose two “battle tested” (pinalihan, or dumaan sa palihan in LIRA-speak) works, namely Talà (”Star”) and Fast Food.

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My last post about Fischer backfired. Call me sentimental — my dog’s pic made me avoid this blog for some time. That, and every delinquent blogger’s pet excuse — “my day job!”

Well, save for the last post, all I’ve been recently babbling about in this blog are books and LIRA. One more article about both of them won’t hurt.

Sir Rio with some of the LIRA 2007 fellows. I’m the one in stripes and with the long hair. From L to R: (back row) JC Sola, to whom this and the next three photos belong to, Karla, Pau, Christa, Rhodge, (front row) Por, Daboi, Da Man, John, Daisy, Guia.

Last Saturday, Ia and I trooped to the much awaited 28th Manila International Book Fair to — what else? — buy a ton of bargain books, as well as attend the “Araw ni Virgilio Almario”, a tribute to the National Artist for Literature and director of the LIRA poetry workshop who’s also known as Rio Alma. The event was part of Pistang Panitik, a five-day literary festival within the Book Fair that was conceived by sir Vim Nadera.

Sirs Roger Mangahas, Bobby Añonuevo, Mike Coroza, and Tata Funilas, who provided comic relief by walking up to the stage wearing a Rio Alma mask, stunning sir Rio’s good friend Roger and distracting him from his talk.

Of course, the fellows of this year’s Palihan sa LIRA were out in full force to support sir Rio. We helped out in the usual chores — preparing the exhibits, ushering in the audience (”Bagay na bagay ang polo mo ah!”), giving out leaflets to Book Fair attendees (”O, mambugaw muna kayo ng ating event”), giving the loudest applause, and whatnot. The programme was good; the critics/presenters were the distinguished trio of Rogelio Mangahas, Roberto Añonuevo, and Michael Coroza. El Batch Presidente and UP Writers’ Club member Pau Hernando was the emcee.

Sirs Michael Coroza and Romulo Baquiran Jr. with Batch Sidhay. Notice the substantial loot I’m carrying; later that night, my left hand was sore.

The small Exhibit Room was jampacked, with many more Book Fair strollers peeping in from time to time. Unfortunately, some members of the audience, mostly students, weren’t paying attention to the talks. That’s respect for the country’s National Artists for you. Curiously, some of these short-attention-span gits were seen avidly lining up for sir Rio’s signature after the programme.

Ia and I having a not-so-sweet-but-sweet-enough moment. JC, thank you for this shot! Hehehe. Nagulat na lang ako noong nakita ko ‘to.

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With a dose of Trinoma thrown in, just for the fun of it.

I’m nearly halfway through the two-month “main course” of the LIRA poetry workshop, which began last June 2. Three corrections to my first LIRA post are in order:

1) Thirty fellows, not fourteen. I got the fourteen from the number of email recipients. Thirty…well, at least in the first day. By the third week, our ranks had thinned to…fourteen. Premonition?

2) The workshop will last for six months, not two. The first two is when the brutal, full-weekend manhandling of our works (and our preconceptions and misconceptions of Filipino literature) take place; the final four months are set aside for (hopefully) less demanding activities with no schedule yet.

3) “I’m not sure if [National Artist Virgilio Almario] will conduct more lectures after [the first talk].” Oh boy, was I dead wrong. Sir Rio has been a very doting (if a bit frank) professor to us fellows. He’s always there for every workshop (palihan in Filipino), and I’ve been humbled quite a few times by his words. What’s the feeling of having such a legendary figure teach you, admonish you, guide you, and casually converse with you? Very surreal.

Now, the LIRA experience would be a tad better if I weren’t splitting my body among three lives — the problogger and freelance writer who publishes 200+ blog posts a month (no kidding), the web projects (hey, we just soft-launched a new site, a definite biggie!) slash Netpreneurial spirit, and the literary Corsarius (hey, who’s this jerk?). With these three juggling for attention, the one week in between workshops is not enough to create poems worthy of Sir Rio’s praise.

To summarize, I’ve been learning and re-learning things as quickly as Manila’s streets flood during this rainy season, so fast that everything spills over and disrupts the ‘other lives’ (schizo!), causing much disorientation. The past three weeks were marred by low work productivity and numerous days’ worth of feeling physically sick, no doubt unleashed by fully-booked weekends and [insert other excuses here, so I can avoid admitting how sickly I am]. Oops.

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Last night, my snail mail Gmail was the harbinger of good news — I’ve been accepted into this year’s Filipino poetry workshop to be held by the Linangan sa Imahen, Retorika, at Anyo, more popularly known as LIRA.

LIRA was founded by National Artist for Literature Virgilio Almario (a.k.a. “Rio Alma”). He’s going to deliver the first lecture to the workshop’s fellows — all fourteen of us, according to the email’s recipient count — but I’m not sure if he’ll conduct more lectures after that.

One thing’s sure, though — I won’t have any excuse not to blog in the next two months. I’ll be having plenty of blog fodder, as the workshop will run from June 2 until August 5, 2007. I’ll be honing my Filipino wordsmithing every Saturday and Sunday, from 9 AM to 5 PM. Suddenly my weekends are booked!

I’m thrilled with this chance to once again learn new things inside the best of places — UP, my alma mater. Of course, there’s also that tinge of nervousness blended in, akin to what I always felt during the first day of classes, from prep school all the way to college. Heck, I’m just probably getting anxious waiting for the lit criticism to roll in, haha.

Wish me luck!