Rational Insanity
Bound Verse
Almost all of us want to be able to write something significant; something most people will appreciate; something most people will want to read and learn from. Perhaps a huge percentage of most of the young people today would want to be able to write poetry. Poetry is a literary art form that demands so much of a writer, but what if we simply want to write what we feel? Should we let the demands of poetry prevent us from expressing our feelings? Being a writer myself, I once felt that expressing my feelings was enough to enable me to write good poetry. Soon enough, after being through numerous workshops and fellowships and after being subjected to senior mentors who respect and who are at the same time, experts in the literary field, I found out that there is much more to poetry than meets the eye (or the pen, for that matter). Obviously poetry is not just being able to take a pen and write down anything. As most of us in the literary field would put it, there is no such thing as simple poetry. When I began to be conscious of the demands that poetry asks of a poet, I wrote less and less of it; not because I have lost all hope of ever being able to write like the masters, but because I found that the more you know of something, the more you respect it, and want to be able to make your craft good enough for it to be able to be called "poetry". For starters, there is no such thing as good poetry, there is only poetry; bad poetry cannot be poetry. There is no such thing as bad poetry, because once poetry is bad, it ceases from being poetry. Now, at least you guys know how difficult it really is to write poetry.
I am saying all these things not because I would like to discourage "would be" poets from being able to write poetry one day. I am saying these things because I realized that with the newfound technical knowledge I have acquired of the literary craft, the challenge of consistently writing and committing myself to the art of literature has increasingly become more difficult with every bit of knowledge that I gain of the craft. Sometimes I almost envy people who know nothing of the craft and who are just able to write what they feel the way they would write a letter to someone they love. I miss those days when writing was plain and simple writing, but you see, with the multiplication of technical obstacles in writing, there are also benefits. A neophyte writer like I am then begins to earn the acceptance of the literary community. When one begins writing, publication of a first piece is like heaven. Later, after numerous works published, the publication-frenzy is no longer a qualifier of whether one writes well or doesn't. Affirmation of one's work evolves into something much more complicated than just seeing one's work on a printed page. Of course, the challenges of being a writer are great, and writers often strive hard to become better writers, but this is also because, writers, like most artists, are only as good as their last performances. I don't regret being a writer; in fact I have faced the challenge head-on. To tell you the truth, there are more new challenges now than there ever were before, but a writer's commitment should not stop when a new wrung on the ladder is acquired. Literary commitment should be a commitment not only to excellence but to the greater task of being able to share the joys of literature, not only to a chosen few but to the greater populace in general. It is in this light that I would like to feature something for you guys this week.
I have a good friend who is currently detained at the Iloilo Provincial Jail in Pavia. This friend of mine has found solace in writing and being a writer myself, I am not the one who will take this comfort away from him. Although I know the demands of writing having been exposed to its complexities, I am not the one to tell him or anybody to stop writing just because I want these demands met. I am here simply as someone who knows how it feels to have your heart on the tip of a pen and your pains and joys bleed unto a sheet of paper, and if someone else needs affirmation in this context, I am always ready to give it. This is the reason why I decided to feature one of his pieces here in my column this week. Here, I had the piece published with his permission. This is the raw, unedited version of his piece (and I am not going to edit it anytime soon, I am not worthy and will never be worthy to trivialize one's emotions by reducing these to something I can simply crash out and change with a red ball pen), and I do hope that like him, and many others who find writing to be a most satisfactory craft, the literary commitment will begin with our first written piece and continue on even when we have realized how difficult it really is to be able to write, and write good.
I'M HAPPY
By Joel Laquihon, May 26, 2006
If what I perceive as happiness is absurd,
Then so be it for this is what the way I feel
I don't need fancy things to be happy here,
I don't need to be liked either.
I am what I am for this is what I'm made.
For happiness comes from with in.
I may not have the money,
I may not be in a beautiful place,
But happy. My heart is full of joy.
I simply txt to my siblings & friends,
Is worth a thousand & enough for me.
A happy thought makes me happy too.
No amount of money can buy that.
I don't know but I'm happy.
I know right then that God is smiling at me.
So I too have to smile even though I'm in here.
No barrier can stop me from being happy.
Thank you Lord for this happiness.
Right now a question for all calculating writers out there who think they know everything -- can you edit humility? Can you edit candor? Can you edit simplicity? I hope the answer is no, because if otherwise, then we won't be bridges, instead we would be barriers to young aspiring writers who dream our dreams as well. All we can do is take ONLY the written word in our hands and work on it; we are just writers, we are not gods. Have our feet always firmly on the ground.
Be rational, be insane, every once in a while!
Next week naman greetings ha, medyo ubos ko na column space eh! TTFN! Ciao!